The people who owned the idyllic home had a large dog which loved to romp in the sand. They'd tie the dog out on the beach on summer evenings, and most of the time the contented pet would frolic with the sand crabs, dig incessantly, and playfully bother any occasional beachcombers.

One night, the dog started to bark. At first, it was nothing out of the ordinary to the dog's owners. Soon enough, though, the barking became furious and incessant. They ventured to a beachside window to see what had disturbed the dog.

The dog's attention was riveted toward the sea. As if affixed toward an invisible being, the dog strained its leash and bayed into the darkness.

The man of the house shouted at the dog. Yelling to it to be quiet, the spell was finally broken and the dog glanced toward the house. There was a strange look in its eyes, but it stopped barking.

No sooner did the family settle back into the house, the dog began its enraptured barking. They reasoned that something known only to the dog itself was intruding on its solace, and decided to wait a few minutes until reprimanding it again.

Within those few minutes, the barking stopped.

Figuring the distraction had gone away, the people relaxed. Surely, the dog would soon settle in and go to sleep, as it usually did, on the beach, near the porch.

Still, to make sure the dog was safe, the man went out to check just before heading for bed. To his horror, the dog was gone!

Beyond that fact, the dog's leash was still there, although crudely severed and ripped apart. Only a superhuman force could have torn the plastic-coated steel cord in that fashion, he thought.

Most frightening and puzzling of all, however, was a grotesque trail of blood and torn flesh leading from the dog's usual den to the ocean water. Paralleling this trail of blood were footprints - webbed footprints - leading out of the water, up to the severed leash, and back into the ocean!