Last night a loud growling noise woke me. Could this be paranormal?

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has experienced stuff exactly like that. And it's not paranormal.

The growl you heard was called dreaming, which happens to everyone all the time. You said it yourself, you were asleep when it happened. Nobody in the world can trust their senses for the first few minutes after opening their eyes, but you're claiming to be in full control of your thoughts and senses before you even wake up? Nope, that's not how it works. There is a standard rule amongst serious paranormal researchers, and it goes like this: If a known physical / scientific explanation is possible, that's the correct explanation every time.

Same principle applies to your other examples. Smells, noises, half-seen shadow figures in the dark, footstep sounds, rattling doors, cold spots and stuff not being where you remember leaving it are all common occurrences with a thousand non-ghostly possible causes behind them.

Going straight to ghosts with your explanation is, even amongst believers in that stuff, extremely jumpy-to-conclusiony. That's a word.

The loud growl in your ear could be tennitus (ringing in the ears). I have had this for 3 years and it sometimes sounds like a growl, or hiss,hum,buzz saw. It is bought on by loud noises. Thank goodness you only experienced it for a few seconds, try living with that noise 24 hours 7 days a week, without a seconds silence...and no medication can be used to lessen the sound. Stress and anxiety makes it louder, it can sometimes sound like fighter pilots are at war in my head. Nothing paranormal, but a normal reaction to loss of hearing caused by loud noises.

<Could this be paranormal?> No, it's perfectly natural.

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<I was woken up> You were asleep. You made the growl yourself in your sleep, which awoke both you and your mother. There's nothing mysterious about this.

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<We've experience other paranormal stuff in our home - shadows, smells, stuff moved around, etc.> You're predisposed to believe in the paranormal, so you are *choosing* to believe that this otherwise banal event, you vocalizing in your sleep, has some sort of mysterious supernatural portent.

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<shadows> The corner of the eye kind? Optical floaters seen in blurry peripheral vision. If you could honestly tell me that you were sitting in a brightly lit room and saw a black form move across the white wall directly in front of you, that would be something, but that's not what you're talking about, is it?

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<stuff moved around> These things never move themselves around when you're watching them, though, do they? People are absentminded--we pick things up and set them down all the time without really thinking about it. We have our phone or a book in our hand when the phone rings or the oven timer goes off or someone's at the door, and we set them down without a second thought. Ask yourself this: whether the goal of a paranormal entity was to frighten you or to communicate with you, wouldn't it be far more effective to move things around while you're watching, than when you're not? Of course it would, it's no contest. Yet, they only move around in a way consistent with that of humans doing the moving, don't they? So, what's the logical thing to conclude?

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You *want* to believe in the paranormal, and so you are manufacturing reasons to by assigning undue significance to insignificant events.

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Now just what do you think is most Likely? Paranormal should always be considered as the LAST possibility, not the first when it comes to an "unknown". Nothing is wrong with Paranormal for a last resort, but we call people who immediately jump to paranormal conclusions "FLAKES"

When you look for the paranormal, you find it. Probably there is a rational explanation, but there is not enough information here to say what it was. As with UFOs, just because a flying object has not been identified does not mean that it is an alien spaceship.

Yes, it is not unusual to hear growling in some cases with a demonic presence. Do you ever hear any banging or knocking that come in threes. I have had a similar experience as well.

Surely it was your Chihuahua to do the lion's roar, bring to the vet, out there there is nothing paranormal, and close the door! Ok!

It seems that demon spirits have been harassing you. If that' s the case, you have to ask for Gods assistance through prayer and also avoid the occult and spiritism.

Someone probably has sleep apnea. It can get quite noisy.

You watch tomany movies.