extraordinary%20encounters

108 Gef
Archangel Gabriel painted by Pietro Vannucci (Arte & Immagini srl/Corbis)
stone. This particular construction detail
would be crucial to what would follow.
One evening in September of that year, so
he would assert, James Irving heard a tapping
noise from the boarded-up attic. The next
morning, when he went into the attic, he
found a wood carving that he recognized as
his own. He had no idea how it got there, but
when he dropped it, he heard the same noise
that had sounded earlier. That evening there
were more sounds, only louder, followed by
apparent running. As Irving would tell researcher
Nandor Fodor, “We heard animal
sounds: barking, growling, hissing, spitting
and blowing” (Carrington and Fodor, 1951).
Suddenly a crack shook the building so hard
that the pictures on the wall moved. Puzzled
and frightened, the family listened to gurgling
sounds that they presumed came from the unknown
animal but which could as easily have
come from a baby learning to speak. A bark
“with a pleading note in it” came next. When
Irving made barking and meowing sounds
himself, apparently in an effort to determine
whether the animal was a dog or cat, the creature
imitated him.