Strange Track in the Snow

[Luke122]

How about a plastic bag, full of snow.

[mDust]

How about a plastic bag, full of snow.

That wouldn't blow around. It could have been a plastic bag full of snow with a mentally-retarded mutant animal trapped in it though...I think that's the next logical step in the direction you were going.

[Luke122]

I think that's a bit less likely..

[FuzzyPlushroom]

The tracks around it seem to hint that, as mDust said, a cat/small 'coon was dragging something along - not sure what happened at the end, maybe it got a better grip with its mouth and carried the small item off? Could've gotten scared off, but that should leave a second set of tracks.

The bendy-corner in the second photo seems to hint at that to me - the odd path could be the result of head movement, with the tracks around it being the path of the animal's body relative to whatever it was dragging.

Or it could have been a ninja-elephant with rabies, I suppose.

[Indybird]

Oh god, I lose internet for 2 days, and this happens . First, lol. Second, the deductive reasoning this thread is impressive.

A few of these do check out except for the fact that there were no tracks or anything at the end, just a few animal tracks near the beginning. Also I'm fairly sure there was no significant wind that night.

I have my friends here puzzled. One of them actually tried recreating it by walking in a perfectly straight path dragging a thin shovel behind him. It worked ok, but that still didnt explain the beginning and end...

-Indybird

[Robotguy]

I'm probably a bit sick & twisted but this is the first thing that came to my mind...

[mDust]

I'm probably a bit sick & twisted but this is the first thing that came to my mind...

Brilliant! We're getting closer to cracking this thing wide open!

My new and improved theory is that it was a cute little mentally-retarded mutant puppy with worms...the snow-covered sidewalk relieved the itch for hundreds of feet before an owl swooped down out of the night sky and snapped its spinal cord with a muffled crunch...no witnesses. It wasn't much of a struggle, and once the owl was satisfied the puppy would never take another breath, they flew off together with a single beat of the owls' 5 foot wingspan. That is what left the 'spray' marks and the absence of tracks at the end.
This should be a movie...

[Airbozo]

Brilliant! We're getting closer to cracking this thing wide open!

...

uh huh huh huh. uh huh uh huh...