"We knew there was something seriously wrong, because the sheepdog Nancy who was eight months old and perfectly housetrained had made a mess on the kitchen floor.

Puzzled and frightened by the terrible racket coming from the back yard, like tin drums being banged together, my husband and a grown-up sons rushed outside. "I peered through the curtains and we all saw it at the same time a black, oval object, big as a two-decker bus hovering in the cloudless sky.

"What scared me the most (for reasons I still don't understand) was the bright egg-yolked-colored light blazing from the UFO's centre. "As we all agreed afterward, the light seemed somehow, like an eye, watching us with a distinct air of unfriendliness."

By the time the men folk had got outside the racket had stopped, and the thing was simply hovering there, silently. " A few seconds later, it appeared to spin. Then it shot upwards at tremendous speed." "The last we saw of it was that sickly yellow light, glowing amid the stars.

"Then it was time to comfort the dogs, which were both whimpering and terrified out of their minds. "After neglecting his food for several days, Bruiser came through it all right but Nancy, our young sheepdog, seemed totally stricken by the experience. "At breakfast time she was struggling for breath so pitifully that we took her to the vet, who pronounced that she had a heart condition, and gave her an injection of Ritalin.

"The shot calmed her, but in her box several hours later, she died. "I suppose it could be a coincidence but we have very little doubt that it was fear of the UFO that killed our dog."