Form: 97 Report
Date: April 11, 2006
From: Joan Woodward,
Animal Reaction Specialist
Subject: Emden MO, July 13, 1973
Category: 4
To: Francis Ridge, NICAP Site Coordinator
Animal Reaction Feature:
A dog that was normally outdoors at night and that normally
barked at and chased any animal that came near the house, began barking
at 3:30
AM. This
barking was unusual, described
as a “scared” bark, causing the witness to get up and see what was
happening.
The dog was barking at a glowing object and would not leave
the porch. Normally in that situation,
the dog would take off after whatever had attracted its attention. The witness
stated that this night the dog
was clearly afraid and continued barking from the porch and would not
leave the
porch.
The witness also noted he heard cattle bellowing on a hill,
and when the light moved off, he heard neighbor’s dogs start barking. [No information
was given on the location of
the cattle or of the neighbor’s house relative to witness and the
unknown
light.—jw]
The Sighting:
The object was described as egg shaped or oblong, about the
size of an average car. It had a
3-dimensional appearance, “..like you could look through it, or right
into
it.” The outside was orange and toward
the center it was brighter and a slightly different color.
The colors were described as
similar to
setting sun but not dark enough to be considered red.
The night was very quiet with no wind.
The
witness made an effort to hear any sound
from the object but heard nothing. He
noted that even when the object started moving, he still could hear
nothing.
The object, judging by a tree in front of it, was estimated
to be 20 feet or less from the ground and was in the area of a clearing. It remained still and in view for about 10
minutes. Then the
witness’s wife, watching from indoors while he watched from
the porch, turned on house lights. At
that point, the object flickered slightly and started moving away
slowly and
steadily, maintaining its low altitude.
It speed was estimated as 5 mph and it was moving in a northwest
direction.. The object was lost to
sight after after 20 seconds as it became obscured by trees. The witness
heard the neighbor’s dogs start
barking about 3 minutes later.[The only direction indicated was that
the glowing object disappeared
moving to the NW. Using YourSky
(fourmilab.ch/yoursky/) to see if any bright objects were near the
horizon at
the time of the sighting, I found Mars was roughly 35° in the
SE sky, unlikely a
factor. However, the 97% illuminated
moon was due to set 4:05 AM (verified
with USNO) and would have been very near the horizon SW horizon. I
cannot say
the setting moon was or was not involved in this sighting without
directions
and knowledge of the topography. The
witness reports the dog was reacting in the direction of the glowing
object,
suggesting something was happening other than the moon setting. However, it is always possible that the dog
was reacting to something other than what the witness was watching.—jw]
Source:
<>SKYLOOK, No. 69, August 1973, page
13
SKYLOOK, No. 70, September 1973, pages
14-15