Let's back up in case this story somehow escaped you: Turner residents have talked for years about a mysterious animal mauling local pets and terrorizing residents. Recently the carcass of a deadÉsomething was found in town, photos were taken and the speculation began: Is this the animal?

A local newspaper sent some of the animal's remains off for genetic testing, but people didn't wait for the results to draw their own conclusions.

Rob, a user dropping in from Wisconsin, cautioned that where there's one mystery beast, there's likely to be more:

"Let's hope this was the only one and not a pack of these things. Once you have predator animals like this in your state your problems are just beginning... look at Wisconsin, we have a wolf population that has exploded out of control."

But is it a wolf? One group not willing to speculate was wildlife officials, who declined to examine it. That left many of you incensed.

Amy was among them:

"There have been plenty of reports over the years of some unknown creature attacking local pets and scaring the residents. You would think that when the report came in that there was a mystery carcass found in the same area they would look into it."

Many critics of the decision not to examine the remains smugly noted that wardens weren't too busy to confiscate koi fish from a restaurant. The Maine State Warden Service is a law enforcement agency, however. So unless they suspected that the animals had been, say, poached, they really had no reason to get involved.

Besides, if they identified the remains, readers wouldn't be able to do their best to ID the animal. And try they did. First came the serious analysis.

Kelly S., along with other visitors, suspected a dog hybrid:

"Interesting....Here's my take. How about a cross between a coyote and a chow chow (hence the blue tongue)?"

Others jumped on the hybrid bandwagon, even going so far as to slam breeders who would be so irresponsible as create this breed. Imaginary irresponsible owners of what may or may not have been a dog hybrid weren't safe from the accusing, either. User momtopom got in on the finger-pointing action:

"Maybe it was turned loose because it became too aggressive to handle or escaped and the owner didn't want to notify anyone for fear of having the aggressive animal."

Tom ditched the dog theory in favor of another species entirely: "I'm just a city boy, and that picture could have been a lot larger, but how about a wild boar? I trust someone checked the feet?"

As outlandish as these theories might sound, they soon got better. If funny is what you mean by better.

Kurt thought it might be the latest designer breed, asking, "Is it a cockerwolf? Is it a wolferdoodle? Is it a laberwolfercockerpoo?"

EvR, tongue planted firmly in cheek, proposed government involvement and a bigger conspiracy: "Maybe the state knows something the pubic does not: that this is a dangerous beast that is harmful to anyone near it. Perhaps it is contagious or actually harbors powers of evil; this would explain why authorities have acted as if they have no interest in the demon."

Jay was among a handful of users who identified the beast as a foreign mythical creature: "Anybody with a boot's full of sense can see that this animal is clearly a chupacabra, and that it is only pretending to be dead. What we need to do is alert the Mexican government that we have captured the beast, then prepare a raft of palms to send it across Three Mile Pond toward the underworld."

A chupacabra, by the way, is a mythical creature believed to roam Mexico and Puerto Rico, among other places. There, consider yourself about 2 percent smarter. Doesn't that feel good? And, of course, no thread of comments would be complete without a dig at the government. Steve happily obliged, saying, "If the Legislature were in session, they could spend two weeks and $1.1 million debating whether to name it the Official Maine State Beast."

Note to whoever is in charge of specialty license plates: Maine Mystery Beast. Look into it! A few people tried to inject reason into the discussion, among them someone posting with the handle W.:

"It's nothing but a feral dog that was living in the woods. The myths that people can talk themselves into believing are a riot."

That might be reality, W. But what fun is that?

Colleen Stone can be reached by e-mail, but if you have a comment about this piece, please post it below.