Are ghost stories real? Who knows? But they sure are scary! In this one, we discover that not all ghosts come in human form. Some of them are short and furry and have wet noses.
BOO-WOW
There is a story told about a ghost dog that helped two young girls on the Isle of Wight (off the coast of England). The beach where the two girls lived was very flat. When the tide was out, it was a long hike to the water. But when the tide came in, it rolled in as fast as a racehorse. Many people died there—drowned because they weren’t paying attention to the dangerous tides.
One day in 1935 two teenage girls on their way to Sunday school stopped to watch an ocean liner pass by. They stood on the beach, unaware that the tide was already circling their ankles, when suddenly a little dog appeared. It was completely black except for its paws and one ear, which were white. He barked furiously at them, ran toward land, and turned around, urging them to follow him. As the little dog ran, one of the girls noticed something strange: he didn’t leave any footprints in the sand.
TIME TO RUN
Before they could even discuss it, the girls suddenly realized they were surrounded by water. It was up to their knees and any second they would be pulled out to sea by the undertow. The girls struggled to get to shore as the dog continued to urge them on.
Some stars, called neutrons, can spin up to 1,000 times a second.
As the girls ran behind the dog, they noticed something else: the water should have been up to the dog’s neck or even over his head. But it wasn’t. In fact, the dog seemed to be running on top of the water!
As soon as they reached land, the dog vanished. Now this was very strange. How could the dog just disappear? They were sure they’d seen a ghost. When they told their friends this story, everyone laughed. Saved by a ghost dog? What a joke! But they stopped laughing when the girls told the story to their Sunday school teacher.
SPOOKY TWIST
The teacher listened carefully and then told his own tale. He said that 40 years earlier, there had been a tragedy on the beach. Three little girls and their dog had gone to play in the sand. They, too, did not notice when the tide came in. As the water circled them, they tried to run back to shore. But the water was too deep for the littlest girl, named Mary. So the older sister put Mary on her shoulders and tried to run for land. But she stumbled and Mary plunged into the deep water.
Don’t believe it? Count ’em yourself: The average person sheds about 10 billion skin flakes every day.
The little dog saw Mary fall and swam out to try to save her. He paddled as hard as he could and was finally able to catch hold of her dress. He pulled her toward the shore, but the current was too strong for both of them. Mary and the dog were dragged under and pulled out to sea.
Days later, when their two bodies were found cast upon the shore, the little dog still had Mary’s dress clenched in his teeth and Mary’s arms were wrapped around him.
You could hear a pin drop as the teacher described the little dog to the class. “He was completely black, except for his paws and one ear, which were white.”
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YOU CALL THAT FOOD?
The ancient Romans were fond of eating a particular kind of rodent, known as a dormouse. So fond, in fact, that the upper classes raised them like chickens. The little creatures (which resemble small squirrels) were kept in specially designed cages and were fed a variety of nuts to make them taste better. Yum!