It’s one of the strangest days I’ve ever had, the first time I saw UFO. 

I was in my mid 20s cat sittng for my girlfriend who was out of town. I’d been going over there once a day for about a week to take care of her furball, so this time I was sort of on autopilot when I arrived. 

Everything felt off the moment I walked in the door. I didn’t know what, but something was terribly wrong. It took a moment from my senses to register all the tiny little things that were off. 

Cabinets were open. The lights were on. Things seem to have been moved around. But everything was still there. 

Maintenance man? Maybe the cat? Maybe he hurt himself? Or went wild trying to chase a mouse around the apartment? 

So, I started looking for him. Then I noticed the bedroom window had been broken. A few minutes later I realized that my girlfriend’s computer was gone. She was a writer, so I knew that was going to be devastating for her. Thankfully her cat was hiding safely in a pile of clothes in the closet. 

The next few hours were spent talking to the cops, calming the cat, filing a police report, and waiting on maintenance to patch up the window so the kitty couldn’t escape again. It was a mess, and I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home but ended up having another conversation with a neighbor in the parking lot on my way out. 

I have no idea what we talked about because as soon as she was out of sight, and I had turned to walk to my car I saw it. In the sky. A circle. No, not a circle. A sphere. A metal sphere. Then my brain put it all together: there’s a metal sphere the size of a small car floating in the sky a couple of dozen feet above my head, less than two miles from DFW airport. 

This was before smartphones when there was no such thing as a decent camera phone. Lucky for me I’m an early adopter and had a first Gen. digital camera attached at my hip. I managed to snap one very shaky picture before the object suddenly vanished. Only it didn’t vanish. It just moved so fast I didn’t register it at first. But there it was, again. Slightly higher in the sky. Then it jumped again. And again. 

And then it disappeared completely. 

This all happened in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny weekday in Dallas TX. At the time it was the most surreal experience that I had ever had. That has changed since, but that’s a story for another day. 

I think back to that day often and the insane circumstances that led to my sighting. I can still barely believe it. That’s why my personal mantra is “Don’t forget to remember”. 

The photo I took makes sure I don’t.