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Ghost Cat, Materialising Moggy

Fairlight

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Mar 19, 2018
Messages
43
Location
England
This happened in the summer of 2003. Myself, my partner and our youngest son who was 3 years old at the time were taking a short break in North Yorkshire, England.

We had been hoping to find guest house accommodation, just basic bed and breakfast, and we were pleased to find something just a little different to the usual. It was a substantial detatched stone property which had once been the local Vicarage in the village of Ruswarp. From Ruswarp a footpath can be taken to the historic seaside town of Whitby, famous for its Captain Cook and Bram Stoker associations amongst many others, this is a walk of about a mile. The village itself has a pub with a beer garden overlooking the river Esk with the railway running past (both of which I find rather pleasing) so it’s an ideal base for a short holiday. Now for the spooky stuff (which, to be honest really wasn’t very spooky)

The three of us had returned to the old Vicarage in mid afternoon. In all likelihood we had been over to Whitby and had lunch and probably an alcoholic beverage or two (the three year old would not have partaken of the latter) but in any event I really don’t think that consumption of alcohol (even if that did happen) would have been a factor in the events that followed.

We went to our room on the first floor of the building, I suspect our boy was tired or already asleep by the time we arrived back and he was certainly asleep in or on the single bed in the room shortly after. The room itself was quite large and there was an adjoining bathroom w/c.
The door to enter/exit was in the right corner of the room and a window to the outside of the house was on the far wall (viewed from the doorway). To the left was a single bed ( furthest from the entrance and closest to the window) then a double bed and next to this was an armchair. Against the right hand wall was a settee (sofa) I sat in the armchair and my partner sat on the bed (her back propped up on the headboard and her legs lengthways on the bed if you know what I mean)
We were both reading (I remember that she was reading the Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner, not sure what I was reading....I mention these details because I have been concentrating on recalling as much as possible about the incident/ room layout etc and only then checking my recollection with hers and this has confirmed that our recollections tally in all the important details)
As I was reading I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. A black cat had jumped up onto the back of the sofa (moving from right to left) and loped across the top of the sofa towards the direction of the door. Now the door would have almost certainly been closed, I would always do this automatically in these settings to indicate that the room is occupied.
It would be reasonable to assume in the circumstances that one might get up and look for where the cat had gone but this idea never crossed my mind, and neither was I surprised that the cat had disappeared, I unquestioningly knew that there wasn’t a cat in the room.
I wasn’t in the least shocked and certainly wasn’t “spooked” (I can’t think of another word to suggest what perhaps should have been a mildly disconcerting experience)
It was actually quite a pleasing experience to actually witness something so strange. Forgive me if it appears that I am embellishing the story with superfluous detail but I think it is necessary to fully explain what I mean. The manner and movement of the cat was absolutely unremarkable, absolutely typical of the comfortably random and seemingly aimless way a cat will jump up on furniture, or a window sill, in a place where it feels comfortable. If (for example) a cat had somehow got into the room and had gone into hiding when strangers arrived and then made a run for it in panic, the movement would have been noticeably different. The only strangeness about this experience was that there was no cat there, and also that I knew there was no cat there.
I also realised with absolute clarity that there may be a potential to validate this experience by asking my partner if she also had noticed anything. I remember my precise words, I asked her very simply “did you see that?” and she replied immediately “yes, it was a cat”
 

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I've had a fair few fully alive cats materialize or de-materialize in closed rooms which has been mind-boggling. I get the ghost cats turning up but why do they have to do it when they're alive?

Classic example 3 days ago Koi. (Ko-ee) ran into the laundry where there is no way out, I followed him in immediately, didn't think anything of it and he's vanished. I turn around back into the kitchen, look through the kitchen into the lounge and there is is having a good licking.

It's not just the vanishing and reappearing it's the time literally two seconds to run into the laundry, change mind, cloak body or teleport to the middle of the lounge and start doing his toilet. It's impossible. Or do they use time manipulation?
 
Good point Naughty Felid! cats truly are remarkable entities and routinely do the seemingly impossible. I've grown up with cats and both of us shared our first house with five of the fascinating creatures. This, however was something a bit more out of the ordinary (even for a cat!) As the toddler was sleeping we remained in the room for a few hours continuing to read and I listened to a bit of the test match on radio four, alas no reappearing cat!
 
We have threads on ghost/appearing cats/pets.

My home has always been full of cats, some ours, some visiting, some who don't know they're dead...

They can move when they want to.

Our current tomcat Tim asks to be let out of the front door in the evening. I tell Techy 'Tim says he's popping out for a slash!' and we laugh, and by the time I've closed the door and wandered back into the kitchen Tim is standing by his food bowl.

Sometimes I catch him entering through the cat flap if I'm quick enough. He must tear round the side of the house and over a couple of fences to be there so fast!
 
I'm not far from Ruswarp, next time I go through on my way to Whitby I shall keep an eye open for the place.

My big fluffy cat, Corvo, looks huge, but underneath the fur he's a whippety wee thing and consequently can squeeze through windows/doors that don't seem far enough open to allow him entry.

Any chance that there was a hole in panelling/behind a curtain that would have allowed a cat room to get in and out? Just wondering if it might have been a household cat, used to the run of the place when the rooms were empty...
 
Yes escargot, cats really are fascinating and some have very powerful personalities, for much of my early childhood we had a magnificent absolutely massive and belligerent ginger tomcat (called, rather imaginatively, Ginger) who had been employed as a ratcatcher in the local woolen mill, he was fearless and had a missing front canine tooth so he dribbled all the time! I would love to have a visit from any of my departed cats (and one in particular who disappeared in extremely upsetting circumstances) but sadly I have not. I have a theory however that cats are all just facets of a great cat spirit and can tap into a pool carrying all the memories and experiences of all cats before them. Often a cat will approach and greet me as though it instantly recognises me, at times I could almost believe that it is drawing on some earlier memory from a past incarnation.
 
I'm not far from Ruswarp, next time I go through on my way to Whitby I shall keep an eye open for the place.

My big fluffy cat, Corvo, looks huge, but underneath the fur he's a whippety wee thing and consequently can squeeze through windows/doors that don't seem far enough open to allow him entry.

Any chance that there was a hole in panelling/behind a curtain that would have allowed a cat room to get in and out? Just wondering if it might have been a household cat, used to the run of the place when the rooms were empty...
Hi Catseye, I think the place is on the market now and from what I could gather it didn't remain as a b&b for very long. When we stayed it had only just become a guest house and we were the only guests, although the daughter of the couple who owned it was also staying and she had a small baby (which fascinated our three year old)
From her account her dad was always buying and renovating houses so she constantly lived in a building site and when it was done he'd sell it and move on to renovate another house (can't have been easy for her!)
Even though the room was upstairs it's eminently possible that a cat could have snuck in, even through an upper window or just brazenly through the main entrance and up the stairs (a cat might have even lived in the place prior to the new owners acquiring it). What we do know is that the couple running it didn't have a cat and had never seen a cat in the house. We also know that no prior guests had ever reported seeing a cat. We also asked half jokingly if they had ever heard anything about the place being haunted but this also drew a blank. The room was well lit and fairly sparsely furnished, the sofa was not a substantial piece of furniture, more like a cane framed thing one might see in a conservatory so there wouldn't be anywhere to hide, but the cat simply moved across the back of the sofa (which was against the wall) and vanished. As I mentioned, it was in my peripheral vision and it was the movement which alerted me, and the very distinctive cat-like movement. It's hard to describe why, but particularly because the sighting was corroborated I didn't feel the need to make a forensic search. I intuitively felt that something very strange had happened and this is why I quite deliberately didn't give away any details of what I'd seen, I just hoped that I hadn't been the only witness.
When the sighting was corroborated, there were some details which I can't remember discussing, we both saw the cat moving across the sofa but I don't recall discussing the direction of movement or the colour of the cat (a bit like if you're out driving at dusk and a barn owl floats across the road, you might say to a passenger "did you see that?" and they say "yeah, a barn owl" you wouldn't ask "was it going right to left or left to right you are just satisfied you've seen the same thing. (incidentally, prior to posting this I was able to verify that both the trajectory and colour of the cat was as I myself witnessed it)
 
This happened in the summer of 2003. Myself, my partner and our youngest son who was 3 years old at the time were taking a short break in North Yorkshire, England.

We had been hoping to find guest house accommodation, just basic bed and breakfast, and we were pleased to find something just a little different to the usual. It was a substantial detatched stone property which had once been the local Vicarage in the village of Ruswarp. From Ruswarp a footpath can be taken to the historic seaside town of Whitby, famous for its Captain Cook and Bram Stoker associations amongst many others, this is a walk of about a mile. The village itself has a pub with a beer garden overlooking the river Esk with the railway running past (both of which I find rather pleasing) so it’s an ideal base for a short holiday. Now for the spooky stuff (which, to be honest really wasn’t very spooky)

The three of us had returned to the old Vicarage in mid afternoon. In all likelihood we had been over to Whitby and had lunch and probably an alcoholic beverage or two (the three year old would not have partaken of the latter) but in any event I really don’t think that consumption of alcohol (even if that did happen) would have been a factor in the events that followed.

We went to our room on the first floor of the building, I suspect our boy was tired or already asleep by the time we arrived back and he was certainly asleep in or on the single bed in the room shortly after. The room itself was quite large and there was an adjoining bathroom w/c.
The door to enter/exit was in the right corner of the room and a window to the outside of the house was on the far wall (viewed from the doorway). To the left was a single bed ( furthest from the entrance and closest to the window) then a double bed and next to this was an armchair. Against the right hand wall was a settee (sofa) I sat in the armchair and my partner sat on the bed (her back propped up on the headboard and her legs lengthways on the bed if you know what I mean)
We were both reading (I remember that she was reading the Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner, not sure what I was reading....I mention these details because I have been concentrating on recalling as much as possible about the incident/ room layout etc and only then checking my recollection with hers and this has confirmed that our recollections tally in all the important details)
As I was reading I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. A black cat had jumped up onto the back of the sofa (moving from right to left) and loped across the top of the sofa towards the direction of the door. Now the door would have almost certainly been closed, I would always do this automatically in these settings to indicate that the room is occupied.
It would be reasonable to assume in the circumstances that one might get up and look for where the cat had gone but this idea never crossed my mind, and neither was I surprised that the cat had disappeared, I unquestioningly knew that there wasn’t a cat in the room.
I wasn’t in the least shocked and certainly wasn’t “spooked” (I can’t think of another word to suggest what perhaps should have been a mildly disconcerting experience)
It was actually quite a pleasing experience to actually witness something so strange. Forgive me if it appears that I am embellishing the story with superfluous detail but I think it is necessary to fully explain what I mean. The manner and movement of the cat was absolutely unremarkable, absolutely typical of the comfortably random and seemingly aimless way a cat will jump up on furniture, or a window sill, in a place where it feels comfortable. If (for example) a cat had somehow got into the room and had gone into hiding when strangers arrived and then made a run for it in panic, the movement would have been noticeably different. The only strangeness about this experience was that there was no cat there, and also that I knew there was no cat there.
I also realised with absolute clarity that there may be a potential to validate this experience by asking my partner if she also had noticed anything. I remember my precise words, I asked her very simply “did you see that?” and she replied immediately “yes, it was a cat”
 
I love this, forgive me if I mentioned this ages ago. Some years ago I was washing up and just letting my mind wander. For some reason I imagined a black cat doing just what you described on the back of my sister's sofa, no idea why. Talking to her soonish after, it turns out that both her daughters had seen just what I imagined.( Thought she was having me on but she was serious ), so now it is the cat that I SENT to them. They have never owned a cat at hat address or any other. On another occasion, both my nieces saw the/a cat going up and up-stairs. A friend of hers has commented that they sense a cat spirit in the house. I really don't know, but this just brought it all back to me, Cheers.
 
I may have posted some years ago about the cat that appeared midair when I was hanging out the washing.
There was nowhere it could have jumped from and it was a rather slow old cat normally.
After it landed it went away walking slowly like it usually did.
 
I may have posted some years ago about the cat that appeared midair when I was hanging out the washing.
There was nowhere it could have jumped from and it was a rather slow old cat normally.
After it landed it went away walking slowly like it usually did.
Feck. They're annoying enough already and they can do that as well?
 
I love this, forgive me if I mentioned this ages ago. Some years ago I was washing up and just letting my mind wander. For some reason I imagined a black cat doing just what you described on the back of my sister's sofa, no idea why. Talking to her soonish after, it turns out that both her daughters had seen just what I imagined.( Thought she was having me on but she was serious ), so now it is the cat that I SENT to them. They have never owned a cat at hat address or any other. On another occasion, both my nieces saw the/a cat going up and up-stairs. A friend of hers has commented that they sense a cat spirit in the house. I really don't know, but this just brought it all back to me, Cheers.
So it was you, SquirrelsRus! you created a Tulpa!
 
This happened in the summer of 2003. Myself, my partner and our youngest son who was 3 years old at the time were taking a short break in North Yorkshire, England.

We had been hoping to find guest house accommodation, just basic bed and breakfast, and we were pleased to find something just a little different to the usual. It was a substantial detatched stone property which had once been the local Vicarage in the village of Ruswarp. From Ruswarp a footpath can be taken to the historic seaside town of Whitby, famous for its Captain Cook and Bram Stoker associations amongst many others, this is a walk of about a mile. The village itself has a pub with a beer garden overlooking the river Esk with the railway running past (both of which I find rather pleasing) so it’s an ideal base for a short holiday. Now for the spooky stuff (which, to be honest really wasn’t very spooky)

The three of us had returned to the old Vicarage in mid afternoon. In all likelihood we had been over to Whitby and had lunch and probably an alcoholic beverage or two (the three year old would not have partaken of the latter) but in any event I really don’t think that consumption of alcohol (even if that did happen) would have been a factor in the events that followed.

We went to our room on the first floor of the building, I suspect our boy was tired or already asleep by the time we arrived back and he was certainly asleep in or on the single bed in the room shortly after. The room itself was quite large and there was an adjoining bathroom w/c.
The door to enter/exit was in the right corner of the room and a window to the outside of the house was on the far wall (viewed from the doorway). To the left was a single bed ( furthest from the entrance and closest to the window) then a double bed and next to this was an armchair. Against the right hand wall was a settee (sofa) I sat in the armchair and my partner sat on the bed (her back propped up on the headboard and her legs lengthways on the bed if you know what I mean)
We were both reading (I remember that she was reading the Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner, not sure what I was reading....I mention these details because I have been concentrating on recalling as much as possible about the incident/ room layout etc and only then checking my recollection with hers and this has confirmed that our recollections tally in all the important details)
As I was reading I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. A black cat had jumped up onto the back of the sofa (moving from right to left) and loped across the top of the sofa towards the direction of the door. Now the door would have almost certainly been closed, I would always do this automatically in these settings to indicate that the room is occupied.
It would be reasonable to assume in the circumstances that one might get up and look for where the cat had gone but this idea never crossed my mind, and neither was I surprised that the cat had disappeared, I unquestioningly knew that there wasn’t a cat in the room.
I wasn’t in the least shocked and certainly wasn’t “spooked” (I can’t think of another word to suggest what perhaps should have been a mildly disconcerting experience)
It was actually quite a pleasing experience to actually witness something so strange. Forgive me if it appears that I am embellishing the story with superfluous detail but I think it is necessary to fully explain what I mean. The manner and movement of the cat was absolutely unremarkable, absolutely typical of the comfortably random and seemingly aimless way a cat will jump up on furniture, or a window sill, in a place where it feels comfortable. If (for example) a cat had somehow got into the room and had gone into hiding when strangers arrived and then made a run for it in panic, the movement would have been noticeably different. The only strangeness about this experience was that there was no cat there, and also that I knew there was no cat there.
I also realised with absolute clarity that there may be a potential to validate this experience by asking my partner if she also had noticed anything. I remember my precise words, I asked her very simply “did you see that?” and she replied immediately “yes, it was a cat”


Fascinating story. I've read a lot about cats seemingly having ability to teleport, so this doesn't surprise me in the least. I like the way you've just taken it in your stride. :nods:


A couple of links that may be of interest:



https://www.strangerdimensions.com/2017/04/23/can-cats-journey-into-other-dimensions/

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/11/bizarre-cases-of-teleporting-animals/


WARNING: If you're anything like me, when you've read the last two links you'll then notice other interesting things down the side of the pages, and go read them, then notice others and read them, and before you know it, your day is gone.


EDIT: I don't know why the first two links have appeared like that, I just used the LINK button like with the other two but they've gone all strange. Sorry 'bout that.
 
... EDIT: I don't know why the first two links have appeared like that, I just used the LINK button like with the other two but they've gone all strange. Sorry 'bout that.

The reason for the odd results is that you were linking to dynamic content (comments) rather than static content (the posts to which the comments referred).
 
On a thread somewhere I posted about our weird materialising cat experience. Husband and I both saw it (also in North Yorkshire, coincidentally but not there). Driving along in the fog, so going maybe 5MPH approaching a blind bend - heavily wooded on one side and just a pasture on the other... and saw a shadow crossing the road. It wasn't a cat. But roughly cat sized. It wasn't attached to an actual cat. Just a shadow. It was metres away and we saw it despite the fog, in the fog lights. When it hit the grass verge it materialised - no longer a shadow but a cat. A see through cat. It then walked another metre or so and vanished into the woods. Not near any houses and besides- it was transparent! It simply wasn't an actual cat. Yet it was a cat.

I turned to him and asked if he'd just seen what I'd seen. He proceeded to describe precisely what I just saw. I'd have thought I was dreaming, hallucinating, whatever, otherwise.

Thing was, we both were watching it intently in the headlights (no danger of running it over as we were going painfully slowly). Because we were both trying to account for what could cast a shadow that was moving like a living thing, if nothing was there to cast a shadow. I remember I looked at the trees above, as they are close to the road. Nothing there to account for it and I'd have assumed weird foglight shadow - only it materialised. And was, most definitely, a cat.

I have seen a few weird things but never anything like that. And we both saw it.

Woods it vanished into have a rigid wire mesh fence that I doubt a cat could get through - we realised in daylight the next day.

ETA: Only difference in our accounts was that husband saw it moving through vegetation by the verge that he said he realised next day simply wasn't there - it's just grass. I didn't sense or see anything anomalous except for the cat itself. I had to come to the conclusion - time slip. Because he saw an environment, partially, at least, that simply isn't there. I was only aware of a transparent moggy.
 
On a thread somewhere I posted about our weird materialising cat experience. Husband and I both saw it (also in North Yorkshire, coincidentally but not there). Driving along in the fog, so going maybe 5MPH approaching a blind bend - heavily wooded on one side and just a pasture on the other... and saw a shadow crossing the road. It wasn't a cat. But roughly cat sized. It wasn't attached to an actual cat. Just a shadow. It was metres away and we saw it despite the fog, in the fog lights. When it hit the grass verge it materialised - no longer a shadow but a cat. A see through cat. It then walked another metre or so and vanished into the woods. Not near any houses and besides- it was transparent! It simply wasn't an actual cat. Yet it was a cat.

I turned to him and asked if he'd just seen what I'd seen. He proceeded to describe precisely what I just saw. I'd have thought I was dreaming, hallucinating, whatever, otherwise.

Thing was, we both were watching it intently in the headlights (no danger of running it over as we were going painfully slowly). Because we were both trying to account for what could cast a shadow that was moving like a living thing, if nothing was there to cast a shadow. I remember I looked at the trees above, as they are close to the road. Nothing there to account for it and I'd have assumed weird foglight shadow - only it materialised. And was, most definitely, a cat.

I have seen a few weird things but never anything like that. And we both saw it.

Woods it vanished into have a rigid wire mesh fence that I doubt a cat could get through - we realised in daylight the next day.

ETA: Only difference in our accounts was that husband saw it moving through vegetation by the verge that he said he realised next day simply wasn't there - it's just grass. I didn't sense or see anything anomalous except for the cat itself. I had to come to the conclusion - time slip. Because he saw an environment, partially, at least, that simply isn't there. I was only aware of a transparent moggy.

Reminds me of when I certainly, DEFINITELY saw a black cat sitting in the middle of the road and slowed the car right down to avoid running it over.

As I grew nearer I saw that it wasn't a cat, just a bit of rubbish or summat. I'd slowed down for an old binbag.

However, a little further on, after a bend, there WAS a black cat exactly as I'd thought I'd seen, which I might've run over if I hadn't slowed down for the imaginary cat.
 
Reminds me of when I certainly, DEFINITELY saw a black cat sitting in the middle of the road and slowed the car right down to avoid running it over.

As I grew nearer I saw that it wasn't a cat, just a bit of rubbish or summat. I'd slowed down for an old binbag.

However, a little further on, after a bend, there WAS a black cat exactly as I'd thought I'd seen, which I might've run over if I hadn't slowed down for the imaginary cat.
Ah yes, like my Owl On The Road. About 15 years ago, my ex lived a village away and I often drove the road at night, backwards and forwards. The road is a country lane and on one severe bend, happens to be the driveway down to the farm my great grandad had, then my grandad, and where my mum was born. The actual farmhouse burned down in the 1980s. But the drive is still there and the second farmhouse where my great grandparents lived.

One evening, pretty late, I was driving along and just coming towards the precise spot on the road opposite where my mum was born, was a barn owl. Just sitting in the road. Literally just there, on the ground. It looked straight at me as I approached and didn't fly off til the very last second. It looked right into my eyes as I drove towards it - really weird as I have never seen one on the ground before or since, and at that precise spot where my family lived and had the fields either side of that road, for a couple of generations.

I told a mate who said it was a good omen kind of thing but I found it unsettling.

A week to the day later, I drove to see my ex, had a massive row with him and got in my car to drive home. But I was so shaken (he was the gaslighting, abuser-without-the-physical-fisticuffs type) I sat in the car for a while in the lane behind his house and couldn't drive back down the lane, home. As I sat there, after ten mins or so, I heard sirens. Normally I'd have got in the car and driven off. But I was shaking and so upset.

Anyway after a bit more time I calmed down enough to drive home. It is a really small B road, and there is rarely a single thing on it at night. As I approached the bend where our farm had been, I realised there was a police block and I could go no further. They can't have been there long - their's were the sirens I had heard when I was sat in the car, a bit before. As it was a bend, I couldn't see exactly where the accident was, at the time.

Following week the inevitable break in the hedgeline and the flower shrine appeared and told their story. Right next to the point in the road where I'd seen the owl, the week before. I found out the driver had been going in the opposite direction to what I would have been had I been on the road when I left ex's house. But he crashed on what would have been 'my' side had I been driving and at that point. (ie: his car jack-knifed - maybe in an attempt to avoid going into the canal type thing that runs alongside the road on the other side, my mum's farm's side).

I could have been killed in a head on collision, right outside the place where my mum had been born which is quite a remote place, too so dunno what the odds of that would be.

The thing that has always stayed with me, though, is that when ex found out he said a load of rubbish which made me realise - Christ, if I'd died that night, he would have told everyone I had a row with him and drove away in a huff and I'd have been blamed for it, and that's all my kids would ever have known about it.

The other thing that occurs to me as I write is that my mum loved barn owls. To the point when my dad worked on a Saturday night, our favourite thing to do was to sit with the back door open listening to them screeching and she'd tell me ghost stories.
 
Ah yes, like my Owl On The Road. About 15 years ago, my ex lived a village away and I often drove the road at night, backwards and forwards. The road is a country lane and on one severe bend, happens to be the driveway down to the farm my great grandad had, then my grandad, and where my mum was born. The actual farmhouse burned down in the 1980s. But the drive is still there and the second farmhouse where my great grandparents lived.

One evening, pretty late, I was driving along and just coming towards the precise spot on the road opposite where my mum was born, was a barn owl. Just sitting in the road. Literally just there, on the ground. It looked straight at me as I approached and didn't fly off til the very last second. It looked right into my eyes as I drove towards it - really weird as I have never seen one on the ground before or since, and at that precise spot where my family lived and had the fields either side of that road, for a couple of generations.

I told a mate who said it was a good omen kind of thing but I found it unsettling.

A week to the day later, I drove to see my ex, had a massive row with him and got in my car to drive home. But I was so shaken (he was the gaslighting, abuser-without-the-physical-fisticuffs type) I sat in the car for a while in the lane behind his house and couldn't drive back down the lane, home. As I sat there, after ten mins or so, I heard sirens. Normally I'd have got in the car and driven off. But I was shaking and so upset.

Anyway after a bit more time I calmed down enough to drive home. It is a really small B road, and there is rarely a single thing on it at night. As I approached the bend where our farm had been, I realised there was a police block and I could go no further. They can't have been there long - their's were the sirens I had heard when I was sat in the car, a bit before. As it was a bend, I couldn't see exactly where the accident was, at the time.

Following week the inevitable break in the hedgeline and the flower shrine appeared and told their story. Right next to the point in the road where I'd seen the owl, the week before. I found out the driver had been going in the opposite direction to what I would have been had I been on the road when I left ex's house. But he crashed on what would have been 'my' side had I been driving and at that point. (ie: his car jack-knifed - maybe in an attempt to avoid going into the canal type thing that runs alongside the road on the other side, my mum's farm's side).

I could have been killed in a head on collision, right outside the place where my mum had been born which is quite a remote place, too so dunno what the odds of that would be.

The thing that has always stayed with me, though, is that when ex found out he said a load of rubbish which made me realise - Christ, if I'd died that night, he would have told everyone I had a row with him and drove away in a huff and I'd have been blamed for it, and that's all my kids would ever have known about it.

The other thing that occurs to me as I write is that my mum loved barn owls. To the point when my dad worked on a Saturday night, our favourite thing to do was to sit with the back door open listening to them screeching and she'd tell me ghost stories.

Fascinating accounts, and sounds like there is definitely something meaningful in the barn owl that appeared to you that night. And also meaningful - although of course it was an awful experience for you - in the row you had with your ex which essentially prevented you from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
 
Thanks for those links, Shrodinger's Zebra. As I mentioned, it really wasn't spooky, more just fascinating....I suppose being comfortable with cats helps but the idea that something which is supposed to be impossible had (possibly) just been witnessed didn't trouble me, I don't think that either of us are particularly credulous people but i will admit to an interest in the anomalous (forteana forums...never would have guessed) and I am receptive (and tend to give the benefit of the doubt) to anyone who seems sincerely to have experienced something out of the ordinary, and I often find the accounts of such people far more convincing than the counter explanations given by skeptics (i'm not referring here to the very plausible suggestions offered by other forum members, I'm speaking more generally)
I distinctly remember your original posting of a see-through cat Ghost in The Machine, and knowing that you're not the only one who has witnessed something weird is reassuring (or could be even more disturbing.... depending)
Escargot's cat/ binbag sighting comes closest to my own attempts to rationalise what I saw. Being so accustomed to cats (and having spent years sharing a space with cats) it occurred to me that perhaps a shadow/light effect, perhaps reflected from a passing vehicle on the road outside (even though the road was perhaps at least 20 feet away and at a considerably lower elevation than the room) had caught the wall and flitted across where the back of the sofa was and it was interpreted as a cat, because that's what i was so familiar with. I don't know if such a theory is even feasible with the relative position of road room/ window. but it was a bright day so it may not be impossible. But I really don't think it was, it just seemed so "real"
Owls, Ghost in the Machine....you never know with Owls, what a story though.....maybe someone really was looking after you.
 
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Fascinating accounts, and sounds like there is definitely something meaningful in the barn owl that appeared to you that night. And also meaningful - although of course it was an awful experience for you - in the row you had with your ex which essentially prevented you from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I never thought of it like that, so thanks.

I was wising up (owl so appropriate) to that ex, around that time. I suspect if my mum was looking out for me she'd not only be saving me from being roadkill, but also wanted me away from my ex.
 
Thanks for those links, Shrodinger's Zebra. As I mentioned, it really wasn't spooky, more just fascinating....I suppose being comfortable with cats helps but the idea that something which is supposed to be impossible had (possibly) just been witnessed didn't trouble me, I don't think that either of us are particularly credulous people but i will admit to an interest in the anomalous (forteana forums...never would have guessed) and I am receptive (and tend to give the benefit of the doubt) to anyone who seems sincerely to have experienced something out of the ordinary, and I often find the accounts of such people far more convincing than the counter explanations given by skeptics (i'm not referring here to the very plausible suggestions offered by other forum members, I'm speaking more generally)
I distinctly remember your original posting of a see-through cat Ghost in The Machine, and knowing that you're not the only one who has witnessed something weird is reassuring (or could be even more disturbing.... depending)
Escargot's cat/ binbag sighting comes closest to my own attempts to rationalise what I saw. Being so accustomed to cats (and having spent years sharing a space with cats) it occurred to me that perhaps a shadow/light effect, perhaps reflected from a passing vehicle on the road outside (even though the road was perhaps at least 20 feet away and at a considerably lower elevation than the room) had caught the wall and flitted across where the back of the sofa was and it was interpreted as a cat, because that's what i was so familiar with. I don't know if such a theory is even feasible with the relative position of road room/ window. but it was a bright day so it may not be impossible. But I really don't think it was, it just seemed so "real"
Owls, Ghost in the Machine....you never know with Owls, what a story though.....maybe someone really was looking after you.
The thing that struck me about the transparent cat was, that we had passed a real cat, earlier that night, in the vilage and its eyes had lit up in the headlights - and the cat both when a shadow and when blatantly a cat - nothing. I would have totally thought nothing of it, and dismissed it as me being tired - because I was really knackered - if I'd been the only one to see it. Husband's account of what he saw accorded with what I thought I saw. Had it just been me, I'd have just shrugged it off as all in my head. Which makes me wonder how often people see anomalous stuff when tired, or in a context that doesn't make it stand out as anomalous - and never realise they just had a supernatural experience?

My kids believe the other stuff I've seen and husand has had a couple of weird experiences before I knew him, that they also believe - but no-one in our family, for one minute, buys that we saw a see through cat!

I do genealogy and my favourite ancestor was a gamekeeper in those very woods, in Regency/early Victorian times. I wish I'd seen him not just a cat!
 
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