Knocking At The Door At My New Home

I recently bought my first home, and live by myself. A little over three weeks ago, right after moving in, I had a friend spend the night to help with unpacking, etc. She was staying in the guest suite, which is on the opposite end of the house from where I was sleeping. It was Saturday morning, sometime before the sun came up, when she came down the hall calling my name frantically and telling me that someone was at the door.

We made the rounds to all the doors, turned on all the outside lights, and there was no one there. Because I hadn't heard anything from where I was sleeping, I asked her what had happened. She said she was awakened by a knocking sound, followed by voices talking. Once she was awake, she heard another set of knocks and thought someone was at the door, so she came and woke me up.

I forgot about that episode, probably because it wasn't actually ME who heard the knocking, and put it out of my mind. I didn't spend the past two Friday nights at my place because I had to work in a nearby town on Saturday morning and stayed with a friend. This past Saturday morning, I was awakened by my dog growling. It was kind of a low growl, and she didn't move from the bed, but it was loud enough to wake me.

The dogs started to rustle in the bed, and then I heard what I thought was someone knocking at the door. It wasn't loud, and the dogs went crazy at that point barking, so I stayed in bed and picked up my cell phone to see what time it was. At this point there is another set of knocks, very loud and insistent -- the kind of knock that happens when you are desperately trying to get someone to answer the door.

The dogs usually run to whichever door someone is knocking and proceed to bark there, but they didn't do that this time. I thought the knocks came from the back door, so I went there first. There was no one there. I went around the house, turning on outside lights and checking -- no one there. I live off the road a bit on some acreage that is completely gated on all sides. If someone was "lost" or there was a car, I would have seen it leaving.

It wasn't until the next day that I started to really think about things, and remembered what happened when my friend spent the night three weeks ago. I started to consider that maybe there was something more going on. I have tried to make sense of it in various ways and cannot. If I was hearing things, then why did my dogs hear it too? And why did my friend hear it too? Both times on a Saturday morning right before dawn.

I have never had anything like this happen to me. I have lived in a variety of places over the years, and never anything weird like this. I definitely don't feel like I have any kind of special sense for the paranormal, although I do believe that ghosts exist. Does anyone have any thoughts? I am freaked out enough to have signed up on this website and posted.