We have birds of prey perching in the old trees behind our house. Ten years ago, I watched a hawk stare down at our dog from above. I'm not Doctor Doolittle, but I could read its mind: Can I lift a thirty-pound pug?
When that pug passed away, we eventually got another one. She was eight weeks old. A tiny thing the size of a burrito. After I heard an owl hooting in the trees one night, I would only take her outside on a leash.
How big would a bird have to be to carry off a person? Who was the last human that a cryptozoological creature managed to fly away with? How long ago did that happen? Was it recently? It might explain parents who put their children in leashes at the mall.