But it wasn't. After the hole was patched I continued to see this small black critter, always from the corner of my eye and always moving quickly, and always when I was there alone. By this time I had checked the place carefully and knew the cat was not inside, so it began to bug me. After we moved in I continued to see it every few days, always when I was alone. Finally I mentioned it to my husband, and he admitted that he'd seen it once or twice also. After I told him it was bothering me, he performed a ritual to "clear" the house, and I never saw it again.
After this experience I did a little research to see if others had experienced something similar, and found very little information. There are many reports of shadow people and the "hat man," but few sightings of what I call "shadow critters."
Shadow critters seem to be a very different phenomenon than the black dog or cat which are more commonly reported. The black dog, sometimes called a hellhound or black shuck, is usually plainly seen and appears threatening, often with glowing red eyes.
Shadow critters are usually seen briefly in peripheral vision, are usually moving, and are relatively small. Typical sightings are similar to mine:
"I keep seeing a shadow running in my house corridor. It is small like a cat, but it has the shape of a blob. "
"Last week we got a new puppy and a couple nights ago ... I saw what looked like the back end of the puppy going into the bathroom ... I've also seen smaller versions darting by on the floor in the corners and under furniture."
"Most of those times I saw shadow 'critters' they were small (probably hamster-sized) and moved rapidly, just like rodents though I do not recall seeing any details, aside from a projection which reminded me a little of a short tail. Usually they were spotted running across open floor or up walls (which is very disconcerting). "
These accounts leave us with one primary question: what are they? Obviously at least most of them are not real animals; real animals are visible when looked at straight on, and real animals don't run up walls. Furthermore, critters the size of cats don't simply disappear in a house; even a lackadaisical homeowner would be aware of a hole large enough to accommodate a cat.
They also, as I have previously noted, do not seem to be the same phenomenon as England's black panthers, America's black lions, Hellhounds, Grims, Black Shucks, etc. Shadow critters are not noted to have glowing red - or glowing any color - eyes as is often the case with the larger black cats and dogs. Shadow critters are also not reported as threatening, nor do they make any noise - black dogs/cats are often reported to growl, howl, or make a sort of eerie wailing noise.
I could suggest that shadow critters are animal ghosts, but due to their generally reported size and behaviors, this seems unlikely. Some of us may be able to accept ghost dogs and cats, but ghost hamsters, mice, and other tiny animals would seem to be stretching the concept. Furthermore, if they were animal ghosts they should be reported as frequently as, or more frequently than, other ghost animals and human ghosts. Instead, they are uncommonly reported and seem to be relatively rare compared to other types of ghosts and even shadow people.
It is possible that some shadow critters are vision defects. Human peripheral vision is different from foveal (central) vision. Peripheral vision is more sensitive to flicker and movement, thus humans often perceive movement from the "corner of the eye" which is not there when the area is looked at directly. Thus shadow critters could be a trick of the higher flicker fusion threshold of peripheral vision (The human eye can detect the flicker of fluorescent lighting or a movie at higher rates in peripheral vision). If, however, this is the case, it seems odd to me that these anomalies are not more frequently reported. If they are a common artifact of the "flicker factor" and peripheral vision, I would think that they would be common enough that people would respond to reports of shadow critters with "oh, I see those all the time. They're nothing." or some similar disclaimer. Or, at the very least, I would think that vision professionals would quickly put forth this explanation to debunk sightings of shadow critters.
We are left with no "reasonable" explanations for shadow critters, and few unreasonable ones. They could be a type of entity that manifests itself as a small, fast-moving shadow due to limited energy or ability to manifest, or they could be a creature that exists only partly in our dimension; an explanation that is often put forward for shadow people. I suppose it is logical that, if there are humanoid beings in another dimension who are sometimes visible to us as shadows, there would also be small animals in that same dimension which would appear as shadow critters.
In any case, if you see one there is apparently no reason to be alarmed. I have not been able to locate any incident in which a person was harmed or even felt threatened by a shadow critter. Usually they move so quickly that by the time the witness realizes they've seen something unusual, it's already gone.
Links and Additional Reading:
Shadow Spirits and Black Animals
Shadow People and Hat Man
Shadow Creatures
Shadow People: Six Common Types
Heike Ott
Ghostsamongus Journalist
http://www.ghostsamongus.net/v2/Content/pid=55.html
