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One night whilst walking beside the road
I glimpsed something move, and so I slowed
It must be a cat, to be so spry
but it looked much redder to my eye
It disappeared behind a tree
What kind of creature did I just see?

Perhaps no animal, a mythical being?
I became scared at what I had been seeing
A gnome or a fairy out all by itself?
Maybe other tiny folk yelled out “Flee, elf!”
But I do not believe in ogres, ergo
there cannot be any such thing, this I know.

Still, it was a strange sight to see in the town
I may need a Xanax to help me calm down.

What did I see? And more importantly, why do you answer that?

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  • $\begingroup$ Was it a cat I saw? can be read backwards! (Same for was it a car or a cat I saw, incidentally). $\endgroup$
    – Mr Pie
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 17:30

1 Answer 1

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You saw a

RED FOX!!

There are a lot of

Mythological creatures and palindromes in this riddle.

Namely,

redder, eye, did, flee elf, ogres ergo, Xanax (and the title, “Was it a cat I saw”). Thanks to @WAF & @msouth for the additional palindromes! The title is a clue to use the first letter of each palindrome in the name of the animal in order of their appearance: Redder, Eye, Did, Flee elf, Ogres ergo, Xanax

This yields

RED FOX, which is a small creature of cat like size which is red and very spry!

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  • $\begingroup$ Don't forget rot13("rlr" naq gur gvgyr). Also, there are a couple other points of intersection between the sets on the relevant Wikipedia list page (like mvm and perhaps gubgu). The other descriptors (spryness and color?) are probably necessary to narrow it down. $\endgroup$
    – WAF
    Commented Nov 11, 2018 at 14:14
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    $\begingroup$ I'm from England, so it can't have been the Ogopogo. Must have been something else. $\endgroup$
    – Astralbee
    Commented Nov 11, 2018 at 14:18
  • $\begingroup$ Also rot13(jnf vg n png V fnj) :D $\endgroup$
    – msouth
    Commented Nov 11, 2018 at 16:10
  • $\begingroup$ You're still missing a couple of things. I'm sure you'll crack it. $\endgroup$
    – Astralbee
    Commented Nov 11, 2018 at 18:15
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    $\begingroup$ I think I got it now, @Astralbee! $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Commented Nov 11, 2018 at 18:20

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