Locked Gates

So a few years back me and my boyfriend at the time moved into this really nice townhouse, a 2 story, 2 bedroom with a MASSIVE sliding door/bay window into a small chain-linked fenced backyard with a “forest” beyond. We found this place out of luck, it had just come on the rental market and we moved in less than a week later. Everything was going fine, I had 2 cats at the time, and they had settled in well and were only indoor, it was also summer and quite hot out.

About 3 months after being there, Joe (my bf) left for work around dinner and I was just chilling on our couch watching TV, when the cats came ripping down the only carpeted part of the house, fully fluffed, claws out and hissing and yowling at the upstairs and booked it under the couch, they stayed there the rest of the night.

Passing it as the wind or the cars outside I didn’t really think much of it but it kept happening more often, they would be downstairs with me and it would be quiet and they would Spazz out at the drop of a hat. They started getting really upset, they were both losing weight and were terrified all the time, worried i booked vet visits tried to keep weight on them. It worked for a while and things started to settled back to normal.

Throughout the summer we had never opened the sliding door since we lucked out and our place was in the shade of this huge, giant tree, so once it was cooling down we would open the door, the fence was about 3 feet tall and it was always locked with a large padlock and only me and Joe had the key for.

There was a few times that i would open the curtains to open the door and I would find that damn gate wide open and the lock hanging off our door handle, this freaked me out, our bedroom was right above that door and we always had that window open and NEVER heard anything down there.

We asked around to our neighbours if they saw/heard anything-nothing, we asked the manager-same thing. So we had some time off so we stayed up, all night a few nights in a row to watch, we hung out, just chatting. We stayed downstairs, upstairs always facing or watching the backyard and gate.

A few times while we were watching we would both stop and go quiet, we felt like we were being watched, it would send shivers over us, but not once did we see that lock move, the gate and fence parts would shake and make that brittle metal sound, like someone was climbing over it. Sometimes we would fall asleep and wake up in the morning and see that damn gate open, lock always nicely balanced on the door handle-mocking us.

This went on for a few days, and a couple times a night, we were well sheltered from wind and rain so it wasn’t those. We were getting really frustrated and the cats were getting worse. As soon as the fence made that sound they were gone, not to be found until morning.

On our 2nd to last night before going back to work we waited all night right next to the sliding door on beanbag chairs, we didn’t say a word, just watched-determined to end this whole thing that night. Joe was getting livid and was ready to beat down whatever kid kept doing stupid shit with our fence every night.

About 3/315 the fence did its moving and shaking again and we just stared, looking through the fence all around, hiding in the shadows of our living room so we wouldn’t be seen by whatever it was out there. As we sat there, we both felt that cold chill that happened at the same time as the “something is watching me” feeling we saw the reflection of eyes, animal eyes, only they were a lot higher than a normal dogs eye would be, but not tall enough to be a local kid, and they had that animal eye shine. It moved closer towards the fence and we watched the paw slip through the space between the gate and the fence and “pop” the lock. We saw it fall to the ground and the gate open. As it got closer we could see that it had a dog like shape but only like 5 times bigger than the Rottweiler that I grew up with.

It picked up the lock and took the 3 steps to our door(it would take us 5/6 steps to cover the same area) and put the lock on the door. It was massive, like its head would be almost shoulder height sitting, and I’m 5’3”, the fur didn’t look right, it was glossy or dog like or anything like it was more along the lines of spiky scales almost. The head turned and looked at us both, and pulled back its lips to growl at us, the teeth looked like they belonged to a shark, and the mouth was full of them, the “growl” was so loud we could hear it thorough the double pane door, loud and clear.

We couldn’t move. It went from Joes side of the window (by the door) to stand right in front of me. The eyes i swear glowed red, still growling it got closer and closer to the door, and i was still frozen. We could hear the cats hissing and spiting at the front door at the other end of the room...maybe 25 feet from me. They knocked over my shoe rack next to the door and it made me jump, and i slid backwards and the cats came running, under the couch and over the table and launched themselves at the dog thing at the door, instead of running away from this thing they were trying to get at it, putting themselves in-between me and it, and they just wanted through the glass.

The dog thing shrunk back, eyes back, growled louder and the neighbours outdoor light came on 2 doors down. The light fell through the fences and we finally got a good look at it and it melted back out of our tiny yard and back into the trees behind our place. It was all black, and it was a mix of spikes on its shoulders and chest up onto its head, and smooth “fur” on the rest of it.

We asked the guy who’s light came on if he saw anything but all he heard was the growling, even he was a little shaken by the sound. We decided that it was time to move and softly after moved out into a new house with a bunch of our friends across town-with no bush in sight, and we broke up a couple months later. That Christmas we went for dinner at a close friends parents house in the wood out of town and something really similar happened with me and another friend at night, and her dog was outside with it the whole time. She had a severe breakdown and had a very distinct fear of going outside in dim light.