St.Demigod Day, I see ghosts (shadow people)

  St.Patrick's Day.  Another Catholic demigod worship "Day of Obligation" (if you don't then you're a sinner, cannot receive the sacrament of the eucharist, and have sinned venally and must confess to a priest at a confessional, or.. well, then you're not Catholic and just lying to yourself, and therefore, according to the Catholics, going to hell) based on a French missionary sent to Ireland to convert the pagans, the 17th of March representing his death, later the two local tribes tore at each other for ownership of his body and several died in the process.  In Ireland, a day of mourning.  In America, a reason to sing the unrelated song, Danny Boy about a father losing his son to war, presumably sentenced to be drafted into the Mexican Revolution, as there's no draft or other war in Ireland at the time it was written (1913).  In America, it's also a reason to drink, though people prefer Jameson (made by a Scotsman) or Guinness Beer, and the "Irish Car Bomb" which is considered offensive to Irish.  People also wear green, though the Irish find that annoying and stupid a tradition.  Yep, we ruined it.  People also remember leprechauns incorrectly, though not other evil fey folk, pookas or kelpies or other folklore correctness.  Pathetic, as Ireland does none of this, and I've been there.  Yep, the "Empty Generation" of the '90s and '00s have ruined it again.
  Anyway, I see ghosts.  A type of Shadow People as it were, but not .. human.  I often have to walk for miles in darkness, the starlight of Scorpio shining bright in the southern sky, complete with Antares (hense, the constellation Scorpio, of course) in the wee hours, and I see shadow animals.  I'm not sure how to deal with them.  I just .. watch.  Long and sleek, I've seen some chasing hare across a fence.  Others seem larger at a distance and bound up 100-step stairways.  I've seen them cross great distances at about 20 to 30 mph with loping strides.  They're all dark, like shadows, moving silently.  They remind me of a mix between a wolf and a cheetah.  Sleek with ears pressed down about their heads in full speed, chasing animals sometimes.  The rabbits I've seen them go after are high-tailing it like there's no tomorrow, usually 2 or 3 rabbits going nuts, but not scrimmaging as rabbits ought, escaping instead straight and together.  Odd.  I've seen this throughout my life, many times.  One time I was certain it was a wolf as light from a lamppost struck it into a shade of gray, but I was chastised no wolves are on the high plains, and that it was likely a coyote.  The thing is, these shadow beasts are around 10 feet long to include the tail.  I measured the distance of a fence section because it had taken-up the entire length when full-stride and it was about 10 feet.  The escaping critters make a bit of a racket, but the shadow creature makes no noise.  I've seen it's jowls and teeth once, tongue hanging out in pursuit.
  None of these shadow animals have chased me, which is good, though in Japan I've been regarded by some in the woods late at night.  I could see pinpricks of red eyes and a seething hatred aimed towards me, and a great danger when I stopped and my heart was in my throat, yet they turned and left, again silently.
  Now, people have mentioned "Shadow People" before.  I'm usually not frightened by the shadow animals, oddly, but the shadow people creep me out.  Some research has indicated a very few folks have seen them as wolf-form, and get the same feelings I do vs. the shadow people.   There's a bit of a legend about it as human-form.  Often looking like a man with a fedora hat, all black and seemingly absorbing light, around 5 foot tall.  I've seen two, peeking behind a tree, then pop back and vanish.  A crushing sense of dread making it hard to breathe.  Some say they're elemental-evil, made of the darkness before the universe's big-bang, before creation of light, or just before.  Some say they're demons, waiting.  Others have insisted they're djin, but I've encountered those before, and they have more obvious intent. 
  I get a sixth sense from my mother (or a sense of derangement, one or the other).  I've been safe these years from them, though the djin have cause havoc on more than one occasion while sleeping, they try to pull your soul from it's astral tether magnetically and they burn with fire, and it hurts!  Ah but the djin are another story, always up and to the left of any room, a thin, loincloth-clad young man with a turban.
  These creatures, always watching, chasing.. have you seen any?