I was surprised how good this was. It's one of these classic short stories everyone has come in contact with in some way. It has made its way into popculture but probably not too many people have actually read it. The author really took his time to establish the characters and build tension, which really made me care and sympathize with the family later. This is also one of the stories that makes you wonder about what you would do at several points in the plot, if you maybe could trick the paw and if you should, what happened to the prior owner etc. I was surprised how far this went, most of the horror is planted into the readers mind: there's nothing graphik, but I couldn't help imagining things. For me, it was actually still a little scary.