To ask for an explanation for wtf just happened? **MNHQ UPDATE: Mystery solved!**

[WeirdlyKind]

I'm seriously creeped out and can't figure out a rational explanation so I'm hoping someone can!

Sitting in the kitchen, eating dinner when a black shape ran past my legs, close enough that I felt it pass. Figured it was my cat at first but when I stood up, she was sitting on the windowsill!

The dark shape ran into the living room where my partner is (he saw it too, because he shouted me!)

It apparently jumped on the sideboard and vanished in front of his eyes. There's nowhere it could go - the sideboard is solid oak on a solid stone wall.

The dog is now going mental at the sideboard like there's something there (if there is, we can't find it!)

I'm genuinely creeped out - anyone have a rational explanation? What the hell did we see?

Another vote for rat.

Ghost rat?

@DickMabutt73962

Rat. Burn the house down NOW.

Brilliant! My reaction ….😬😬😬

Rat, 100%

Rats would be my worst nightmare

I’m voting rat too

@MissAngorian you should read graveyard shift by Stephen King, I listened to it recently on audible and nearly cried. It made me feel sick.

an out of phase being, or something thats part of an experiment gone astray, or a type of being from a parallel universe or from a different part of a galaxy

I'm also voting 'rat', but where are you in the country? Depending on your location, if it's quick and a good jumper, it could be a glisglis?

Either way I'd be having stern words with your cat.

If it vanished into thin air in front of stone wall then it ain't a rat.

So yes more likely a ghost cat.

Burn some sage

@UnshakenNeedsStirring

Burn some sage

😂

@ImprobablePuffin, they can definitely jump that high. Had a pet rat that jumped from bed to dressing table for a carrot and a stray rat in the kitchen that used to get grapes, bananas, kitchen towels etc. off the kitchen counter and drag them behind the fridge.

Most likely a rat. Sprinkle some flour lightly strategically, e.g. where it "disappeared" and near the skirting board and entry point into the room before you go to bed, tomorrow morning look at the flour to see if it has been disturbed.

Dunno what it was, but whatever it was I wouldn't be sleeping there tonight. House would be on the market as soon as the estate agents opened tomorrow.

I am going for rat, mink or weasel/stoat (i can never remember which is which!)...

All of these can jump quite high, the rats in my yard can jump a good 4ft up a tree and launch themselves 6ft out over the fence to escape the dogs (if they choose the right way in their panic. If they don't, well... survival of the fittest!)

I had a rat bolt from under the sofa, past my legs and out the french doors once, and another time it dashed up the stairs and AT me (not really, it was aiming for past me to the open boxing for the pipework covering our foul drainpipe)... as i sat on the loo, bleary eyed and nakey early one morning.

Both of those experiences could have felt a lot more ghosty like had I not been looking directly at the rat when they zoomed by/at me.

I've had plenty of rats in my house large and small.. have seen them dart across the skirting board late at night and think it would be obvious if one of tha bastards touched me!

I am adept now of grabbing the squeaky fuckers with tea towel and lobbing em back in to fields over road.

You'd Def know if it was a rat.

I am sitting here giggling. I read your post as ‘a dark SHEEP ran past’ and was very surprised at some of the replies...

Now I have caught up, I agree rodent of some sort. But the sheep was much more fun!

@Georgeskitchen you too!

Yep cats bring em in and find they're too big after all! I reckon one was living in my sofa for weeks 🤣

Tea towels to catch - whilst the cat still tries to get in on the act and pretend it's useful 🙄

Following for the resolution !

@WeirdlyKind

Would a rat be able to jump onto a side board though? It's quite tall! I'd rather have a rat than a ghost I think.

Can't see anything behind the sideboard and it's too heavy to move!

Lol...I’d rather have a ghost than a rat.... I do have a ghost and they are no bother 😅

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/giant-rats-the-size-cats-25080241

Another vote for rat. They can get through tiny gaps and are as quick as anything. Like other people have said, the cat might have bought it in, but if you experience it again maybe get pest control out?

In my experience dogs don't go crazy just because their owners are showing an interest in a part of a room. Unless you were shouting or doing something that riled it up.

Have you pulled the sideboard out? Empty it, pull out any drawers, and turn it over. The rat might have hidden behind it then run off somewhere else.

That said, I do believe in ghosts/spirits because I seem to encounter them in every house that's over 50 years old and have done since I was a child. Thankfully I'm in a peaceful new build now and so far so good

Didn't finish my middle point. The rat might have made a nest in a tiny corner of the sideboard so check it from all angles.