Report 4414: Nighttime sighting by four witnesses, near Plainwell

A few of my brothers friends, my brother & I were sitting at home. My brother & his friends were in the next room & I was in the dining room on the computer when I heard loud banging & thumping on the deck. I disregarded the noise as my cat & I went back to what I was doing. But I kept hearing the noise, so I went & got my brother & his friends & we all went outside to check out the noise, there was nothing there. The moon shown down on the grass & we saw a large shadow kneeling down across the lawn we saw the large beast stand up & run across the lawn & through a mud puddle heard the splash, & up a neighbors driveway. It scared my cat which was out near it. So we went back inside got a flashlight & several small blunt weapons incase we were attacked. Three of us ventured out to the driveway & the last one stayed at the house. Us other three went to the driveway & saw nothing. We all heard the same low growling & groaning. This afternoon I found a large foot print in a nearby sandbox (I'll have a follow up on that, I have pictures). The print was a foot & a half long and 6 inches or so wide, and a couple inches deep. I have had several other small encounters but nothing of this magnitude. This is by far the most frightening experiance with it.