The Ghosts Of Animals

escargot said:
There's a lovely, hair-raising piece hereabouts somewhere concerning the spirit of a dog who belonged to a Hindu family. Tried to find it on b3ta where I first saw it with no joy.

Edit - here it is!

The night our dog died

When our family dog died, I was in my early twenties still living in the home I was raised, an Indian family in the suburbs of London

As anyone who has had a pet will know, it was devastating for all of us and it marks the one creepy story in my life

The evening that our dog passed away, my younger brother walked into my bedroom at about 2am and quietly asked if i was awake. Of course, that did the trick and I said I was. "Can you hear that?". With such a question, I was wide awake in a nano second and sitting upright.

I strained to pick out what he seemed to hear very obviously, but couldnt hear anything. he repeated twice "there, can't you hear that?".

I might add at this point that my Brother is very level head-headed. Very anti drugs and anti anything that results in loss of mental self control, very stoic... So i did not think then, or now, that he was imagining it and asked him what he could hear. "I can hear Dad outside calling me"

I got out of bed and in my sleepy state, I imagined that perhaps our Father had gone sleep walking or got stuck outside (why, I didnt know, but I was trying to match scenarios to what my Brother was telling me). He had never done either. So, we walked to my Parents room and peered into the darkness.

I quietly called out "Dad?" and he woke with a slight start obviously a bit suprised to have both his adult sons looking in to the room. This time my brother just said he could hear a voice in the garden and now the whole family was awake

What followed would be comical if it wasn't so odd at the time. We all quietly trooped downstairs and I picking up the nearest solid object as now I supposed there must be an intruder in our back garden

Our garden is accessed by huge sliding glass doors. It means that you can see the outside clearer than the inside because of the ambient light from the street. As we walked towards the doors, it was obvious that the garden was empty

Again, my brother asked "Cant you all hear that???" By now he was slightly bewildered more than anything. My Father asked "what exactly can you hear?" and he told him what he told me orginally "Dad, I can hear YOU calling out to me". I still remember my Father's reaction when he asked him to repeat what he just said.

My Father's face showed a sense of recognition & sadness. He seemed to nod.. He looked out at the garden and said to all of us "everyone go to sleep, I am going to stay up a while"

At this point I just thought the whole thing was rather silly and happily trooped up to bed, and was asleep immediately

The next morning, I came downstairs and of course asked what all that was about. My brother was already awake, but my Father was waiting for me to get up before saying anything

My father is a hindu. The religion is the world's oldest major religion and is a unique combination of culturally led traditions, supersitions & dogma. My Father is a humble man and never imposed the religion on us London born boys (he even sent us to Roman Catholic Schools without blinking).

So he chose words knowing that his audience were in many ways removed from his beliefs, neither familiar nor overly skeptical

He told us that according to Hindu belief, when animals die, they dont know that they have passed on. Humans know that they have died, so, unless they have 'unfinished' business, they dont hang about. But pets want to come back into the home that they have lived in for years.

As they are on the outside, they call out to someone in the family in a human voice that this person will recognise in the hope that they will let them in.

I went quite cold, and my Brother was so unnerved, his face actually went completely blank

My Father then said that he had sat facing the garden and prayed for our pet dog and told her to go in peace.

I never questioned my Brother about it and he did not defend what he said he had heard nor started to fob it off as something imagined

We never spoke about it again.
Click to expand...
Very moving if a little scary
 
escargot said:
There's a lovely, hair-raising piece hereabouts somewhere concerning the spirit of a dog who belonged to a Hindu family. Tried to find it on b3ta where I first saw it with no joy.

Edit - here it is!

The night our dog died

When our family dog died, I was in my early twenties still living in the home I was raised, an Indian family in the suburbs of London

As anyone who has had a pet will know, it was devastating for all of us and it marks the one creepy story in my life

The evening that our dog passed away, my younger brother walked into my bedroom at about 2am and quietly asked if i was awake. Of course, that did the trick and I said I was. "Can you hear that?". With such a question, I was wide awake in a nano second and sitting upright.

I strained to pick out what he seemed to hear very obviously, but couldnt hear anything. he repeated twice "there, can't you hear that?".

I might add at this point that my Brother is very level head-headed. Very anti drugs and anti anything that results in loss of mental self control, very stoic... So i did not think then, or now, that he was imagining it and asked him what he could hear. "I can hear Dad outside calling me"

I got out of bed and in my sleepy state, I imagined that perhaps our Father had gone sleep walking or got stuck outside (why, I didnt know, but I was trying to match scenarios to what my Brother was telling me). He had never done either. So, we walked to my Parents room and peered into the darkness.

I quietly called out "Dad?" and he woke with a slight start obviously a bit suprised to have both his adult sons looking in to the room. This time my brother just said he could hear a voice in the garden and now the whole family was awake

What followed would be comical if it wasn't so odd at the time. We all quietly trooped downstairs and I picking up the nearest solid object as now I supposed there must be an intruder in our back garden

Our garden is accessed by huge sliding glass doors. It means that you can see the outside clearer than the inside because of the ambient light from the street. As we walked towards the doors, it was obvious that the garden was empty

Again, my brother asked "Cant you all hear that???" By now he was slightly bewildered more than anything. My Father asked "what exactly can you hear?" and he told him what he told me orginally "Dad, I can hear YOU calling out to me". I still remember my Father's reaction when he asked him to repeat what he just said.

My Father's face showed a sense of recognition & sadness. He seemed to nod.. He looked out at the garden and said to all of us "everyone go to sleep, I am going to stay up a while"

At this point I just thought the whole thing was rather silly and happily trooped up to bed, and was asleep immediately

The next morning, I came downstairs and of course asked what all that was about. My brother was already awake, but my Father was waiting for me to get up before saying anything

My father is a hindu. The religion is the world's oldest major religion and is a unique combination of culturally led traditions, supersitions & dogma. My Father is a humble man and never imposed the religion on us London born boys (he even sent us to Roman Catholic Schools without blinking).

So he chose words knowing that his audience were in many ways removed from his beliefs, neither familiar nor overly skeptical

He told us that according to Hindu belief, when animals die, they dont know that they have passed on. Humans know that they have died, so, unless they have 'unfinished' business, they dont hang about. But pets want to come back into the home that they have lived in for years.

As they are on the outside, they call out to someone in the family in a human voice that this person will recognise in the hope that they will let them in.

I went quite cold, and my Brother was so unnerved, his face actually went completely blank

My Father then said that he had sat facing the garden and prayed for our pet dog and told her to go in peace.

I never questioned my Brother about it and he did not defend what he said he had heard nor started to fob it off as something imagined

We never spoke about it again.
Click to expand...

There is something both eerie yet comforting about this. I suppose because it bridges the close and sometimes uncanny relationship that we can have with our animals.
 
escargot said:
There's a lovely, hair-raising piece hereabouts somewhere concerning the spirit of a dog who belonged to a Hindu family. Tried to find it on b3ta where I first saw it with no joy.

Edit - here it is!

The night our dog died
Click to expand...

That may be one of the sweetest expressions of observance of faith and of Dog I have ever read.
 
Looks like a husky crossbreed to me. And it's not 'looking at the man going up the steps', it's looking off to the side, presumably to where its owner is standing...

I don't disbelieve that the woman didn't see anything when she took the picture, mostly because I also have the ability to take a photograph, where I am concentrating so hard on the central 'thing' I am photographing, and ignore the fact that there's a gigantically awful something in the background. I cite here every photo I've ever posted on Facebook of my dog, in front of a filthy and ripped sofa cover...
 
I do like the idea it's a gyrtrash though. And that could be relevant whatever it's reality status!
 
After spending an enjoyable few hours in Oxford yesterday, we drove South towards Newbury along the A34.
We took a turn off the main road somewhere in the Wessex Downs AONB and parked in one of the the car parks along the famous Ridgeway. There were a handful of other cars there, but all the occupants were presumably hiking along the track, as we saw no-one. After getting out of my air-conditioned car, the 36 degree blast of England's hottest day for 17 years felt like standing next to a furnace. We walked a short distance East along The Ridgeway and found a pleasant grassy spot, where we had an enjoyable picnic amidst the stunning scenery and with some impressive Red Kites circling above.
When I got home, I did a little Googling about The Ridgeway, as I thought such a famous and ancient road must have some spooky tales to tell.
Sure enough, amongst others, The Ridgeway has a ghostly white cat, that has been reported to stalk hikers. A very evocative account is on this blog, along with several other creepy tales from the South West of England.
Happy reading!

http://hauntedwiltshire.blogspot.com/2011/10/ridgeway-and-white-cat.html

ridgeway.jpg
 
Last edited:
OK, I've posted this more than once before, but it's so good I'm lobbing it in again. Our newer members might like it.

It's from b3ta.
(Broken up a bit into smaller paragraphs to make it easier to read on a phone.)

The night our dog died
When our family dog died, I was in my early twenties still living in the home I was raised, an Indian family in the suburbs of London

As anyone who has had a pet will know, it was devastating for all of us and it marks the one creepy story in my life

The evening that our dog passed away, my younger brother walked into my bedroom at about 2am and quietly asked if i was awake. Of course, that did the trick and I said I was. "Can you hear that?"

With such a question, I was wide awake in a nano second and sitting upright. I strained to pick out what he seemed to hear very obviously, but couldnt hear anything. he repeated twice "there, can't you hear that?".

I might add at this point that my Brother is very level head-headed. Very anti drugs and anti anything that results in loss of mental self control, very stoic... So i did not think then, or now, that he was imagining it and asked him what he could hear. "I can hear Dad outside calling me"

I got out of bed and in my sleepy state, I imagined that perhaps our Father had gone sleep walking or got stuck outside (why, I didn't know, but I was trying to match scenarios to what my Brother was telling me). He had never done either.

So, we walked to my Parents room and peered into the darkness. I quietly called out "Dad?" and he woke with a slight start obviously a bit surprised to have both his adult sons looking in to the room. This time my brother just said he could hear a voice in the garden and now the whole family was awake

What followed would be comical if it wasn't so odd at the time. We all quietly trooped downstairs and I picking up the nearest solid object as now I supposed there must be an intruder in our back garden

Our garden is accessed by huge sliding glass doors. It means that you can see the outside clearer than the inside because of the ambient light from the street. As we walked towards the doors, it was obvious that the garden was empty

Again, my brother asked "Cant you all hear that???" By now he was slightly bewildered more than anything.

My Father asked "what exactly can you hear?" and he told him what he told me originally "Dad, I can hear YOU calling out to me".

I still remember my Father's reaction when he asked him to repeat what he just said. My Father's face showed a sense of recognition & sadness. He seemed to nod.
He looked out at the garden and said to all of us "everyone go to sleep, I am going to stay up a while"

At this point I just thought the whole thing was rather silly and happily trooped up to bed, and was asleep immediately

The next morning, I came downstairs and of course asked what all that was about. My brother was already awake, but my Father was waiting for me to get up before saying anything

My father is a Hindu. The religion is the world's oldest major religion and is a unique combination of culturally led traditions, superstitions & dogma.
My Father is a humble man and never imposed the religion on us London born boys (he even sent us to Roman Catholic Schools without blinking). So he chose words knowing that his audience were in many ways removed from his beliefs, neither familiar nor overly skeptical.

He told us that according to Hindu belief, when animals die, they don't know that they have passed on.

Humans know that they have died, so, unless they have 'unfinished' business, they don't hang about. But pets want to come back into the home that they have lived in for years.
As they are on the outside, they call out to someone in the family in a human voice that this person will recognise in the hope that they will let them in.

I went quite cold, and my Brother was so unnerved, his face actually went completely blank

My Father then said that he had sat facing the garden and prayed for our pet dog and told her to go in peace.

I never questioned my Brother about it and he did not defend what he said he had heard nor started to fob it off as something imagined

We never spoke about it again.
 
escargot said:
OK, I've posted this more than once before, but it's so good I'm lobbing it in again. Our newer members might like it.

It's from b3ta.
(Broken up a bit into smaller paragraphs to make it easier to read on a phone.)

The night our dog died
When our family dog died, I was in my early twenties still living in the home I was raised, an Indian family in the suburbs of London

As anyone who has had a pet will know, it was devastating for all of us and it marks the one creepy story in my life

The evening that our dog passed away, my younger brother walked into my bedroom at about 2am and quietly asked if i was awake. Of course, that did the trick and I said I was. "Can you hear that?"

With such a question, I was wide awake in a nano second and sitting upright. I strained to pick out what he seemed to hear very obviously, but couldnt hear anything. he repeated twice "there, can't you hear that?".

I might add at this point that my Brother is very level head-headed. Very anti drugs and anti anything that results in loss of mental self control, very stoic... So i did not think then, or now, that he was imagining it and asked him what he could hear. "I can hear Dad outside calling me"

I got out of bed and in my sleepy state, I imagined that perhaps our Father had gone sleep walking or got stuck outside (why, I didn't know, but I was trying to match scenarios to what my Brother was telling me). He had never done either.

So, we walked to my Parents room and peered into the darkness. I quietly called out "Dad?" and he woke with a slight start obviously a bit surprised to have both his adult sons looking in to the room. This time my brother just said he could hear a voice in the garden and now the whole family was awake

What followed would be comical if it wasn't so odd at the time. We all quietly trooped downstairs and I picking up the nearest solid object as now I supposed there must be an intruder in our back garden

Our garden is accessed by huge sliding glass doors. It means that you can see the outside clearer than the inside because of the ambient light from the street. As we walked towards the doors, it was obvious that the garden was empty

Again, my brother asked "Cant you all hear that???" By now he was slightly bewildered more than anything.

My Father asked "what exactly can you hear?" and he told him what he told me originally "Dad, I can hear YOU calling out to me".

I still remember my Father's reaction when he asked him to repeat what he just said. My Father's face showed a sense of recognition & sadness. He seemed to nod.
He looked out at the garden and said to all of us "everyone go to sleep, I am going to stay up a while"

At this point I just thought the whole thing was rather silly and happily trooped up to bed, and was asleep immediately

The next morning, I came downstairs and of course asked what all that was about. My brother was already awake, but my Father was waiting for me to get up before saying anything

My father is a Hindu. The religion is the world's oldest major religion and is a unique combination of culturally led traditions, superstitions & dogma.
My Father is a humble man and never imposed the religion on us London born boys (he even sent us to Roman Catholic Schools without blinking). So he chose words knowing that his audience were in many ways removed from his beliefs, neither familiar nor overly skeptical.

He told us that according to Hindu belief, when animals die, they don't know that they have passed on.

Humans know that they have died, so, unless they have 'unfinished' business, they don't hang about. But pets want to come back into the home that they have lived in for years.
As they are on the outside, they call out to someone in the family in a human voice that this person will recognise in the hope that they will let them in.

I went quite cold, and my Brother was so unnerved, his face actually went completely blank

My Father then said that he had sat facing the garden and prayed for our pet dog and told her to go in peace.

I never questioned my Brother about it and he did not defend what he said he had heard nor started to fob it off as something imagined

We never spoke about it again.
Click to expand...
But what happens if you do let them in?
 
I haven't followed the link yet, but want to note that she wrote a ghost story about ghost dogs. It's called Kerfol. It was published in 1916. Perhaps her ghost dogs were the inspiration for the story. Or vice versa . . .

[edit] Oh, yes, I've followed the first link now, and in reading it I see that Kerfol is mentioned.
 
IbisNibs said:
I haven't followed the link yet, but want to note that she wrote a ghost story about ghost dogs. It's called Kerfol. It was published in 1916. Perhaps her ghost dogs were the inspiration for the story. Or vice versa . . .

[edit] Oh, yes, I've followed the first link now, and in reading it I see that Kerfol is mentioned.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have read that story "Kerfol". I think it is a great story, especially as far as literary qualities are concerned. I have read most of Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories, and my personal favorite is "Kerfol".

For anyone who is interested in Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0684842572/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. (A UK web site also has this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Stor...=978-0684842578&qid=1608359458&s=books&sr=1-1.)
There are probably other collections available as well. Very well-written literary Ghost Stories.
 
IbisNibs said:
I haven't followed the link yet, but want to note that she wrote a ghost story about ghost dogs. It's called Kerfol. It was published in 1916. Perhaps her ghost dogs were the inspiration for the story. Or vice versa . . .

[edit] Oh, yes, I've followed the first link now, and in reading it I see that Kerfol is mentioned.
Click to expand...

Thoroughly enjoyed that short tale - a classic and atmospheric ghost story, set in a part of France I know well.
 
My sister believes she saw one of her dogs after they'd died. Apparently it appeared as a dog shaped shadow type figure, sat the way the dog often used to in the living room. She was by herself, told the dog she had to 'move on' or something like that, and I believe the image then faded away. Her partner also saw something similar in a separate incident but I'm not sure whether that was before or after what my sister experienced.

I'd never heard a ghostly pet tale before, but it looks like they're not uncommon! I've already told my dog that when she dies she has look for deceased family members, or 'go to the light where the biscuits are'. :p I love her to bits and will be a mess when the day comes, but I can't stand the idea of her being 'alone' in a ghostly existence (unless it's a 'tape recorder' type of phenomena).
 
Cloudbusting said:
My sister believes she saw one of her dogs after they'd died. Apparently it appeared as a dog shaped shadow type figure, sat the way the dog often used to in the living room. She was by herself, told the dog she had to 'move on' or something like that, and I believe the image then faded away. Her partner also saw something similar in a separate incident but I'm not sure whether that was before or after what my sister experienced.

I'd never heard a ghostly pet tale before, but it looks like they're not uncommon! I've already told my dog that when she dies she has look for deceased family members, or 'go to the light where the biscuits are'. :p I love her to bits and will be a mess when the day comes, but I can't stand the idea of her being 'alone' in a ghostly existence (unless it's a 'tape recorder' type of phenomena).
Click to expand...
I've never seen any of my (quite numerous) pets since they left me. I don't know whether to be glad, because they've obviously moved on to somewhere they are happy and feel no need to keep hanging around waiting for - what? - or sad because I'd like to feel they are still close to me.

I'm fairly tough and it takes a bit to affect me, but the thought of my animals wandering around wondering why I'm not still petting them or interacting with them can reduce me to tears. I really hope they are waiting for us on the other side.
 
Saw this on Reddit. It's supposed to be a ghost dog.

My mom took this photo on her phone of our backyard, I clearly see a dog?
Click to expand...

(submitted by FailleFatales)

Reddit ghost dog.jpg

If you look at the 'eyes' you can see the rest of the dog to the right, made of the background like the Predator. I picked it out right away and can still see it on the thumbnail. Cleverly done.
 
I had an odd one the other night....I've thought for a long time I had a ghost caqt in the house, but Ive not seen it for years, and my rescue void (a large black cat) who has been with me 2 years has never reacted.

Anyway Friday night my mate was over, the cat door was closed and my mate was standing over it with the top half of the stable door open, smoking. He claims he saw a black cat move past him and straight out of the (closed) cat door. He was so sure he even checked that my boy was still in even though what he saw was smaller and seemed to have salt-and-peppery markings on its black coat. Sadly he was blocking the cat-cam that monitors the catflap. The cat-cam has never picked up anything untoward, and is motion triggered.

Years ago apparently there was a black cat that lived at this house, and last year a black cat, smaller than mine, got run over on our road. He was friends with my lad, and used to come in and out the catflap to eat the catfood...but he was solid black with a collar.

Its all very odd.
 
Why some and not others? This is what baffles me. I can just about get behind the several theories behind human ghostly appearances, stone tape, time slip etc, and presume that these must hold true for animals, yet they rarely have 'unfinished business', and are often outside rather than linked to a particular location. I've never once seen or heard any of my ex-pets, including those who were (in one case almost unhealthily so) most attached to me. So, are animal ghosts the same thing as human ghosts, or something else?
 
Many years ago I may have sent an idea of a cat to 2 of my niece's at my sister's house.I seem to remember I was washing up at home and just sort of day-dreaming and imagining a cat going along the back of my sister's sofa.NO idea why, but I do like cats.One of her daughters apparently had seen a cat there in the lounge and the other one saw a cat upstairs i think it was.They assumed they had seen the ghost of some cat ,but was it.?...All co-incidental possibly...particularly as at some time a couple who aparently "see" things others don't had told my sister there was a cat spirit in her house...However their house was built on old farm fields and the previous (1st) owners had no cats. I prefer me sending the image...and we do seem to have some sort of Psychic for want of a better word on the female side of the family. Difficult to prove anything but we have had some strange ocurances over the yars. Apologies if I mentioned this previously !
 
Anonymous said:
Ghostly Pets

I kept fish about 10 to 15 years ago and had 2 very strange incidents:

1 - I gave a fish to someone else, it was one I'd had for about a year and I gave it away because my aquarium was not suitable for it. About 2 days later I saw 'him' in one of my other aquaria where he'd never been. (I know they all look the same, but when you know them well you notice small things which are identifiable.) Anyway, the day after I told my mother because it was a bit weird, when she told me that the fish had died at around that time.

2- A goldfish I had for 14 years died, and I replaced him with 3 others. They became bashed up and diseased and died about 1 year later. When I was emptying the tank for the last time and the aquarium was about 1 third full, I was walking back into the room when I saw the original fish swimming in the water for what felt like 2 to 3 seconds. My initial reaction was that I had halucinated, but now I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
I came home from the fifth grade one day to find my usually cheerful mom shaken and upset. She had been hanging clothes in the backyard and she looked down and saw our dog standing there looking up at her. But the dog was mangled and half its head was missing. She knew it couldn't really be alive with those injuries. She ran in the house and stayed there.

Fast forward a couple of hours, and my stepfather came home from the field. He was a tractor driver and had been disking an orchard that day.

I became a tractor driver myself later on. When you're disking, your actions just become automatic after a while. You get to the end of a row, pull a lever to raise the disk, turn into the next row and push the lever to drop the disk and go on.

Unfortunately, our dog had followed my stepfather into the field and was flowing along behind him. He accidentally dropped the disk on the dog and killed him. He found him when it got back to that end of the field and took his shovel and buried him.

So, the thing is, my mom saw the apparition of our dog before she knew he was dead and how he had died. The injuries she saw were the ones that had been inflicted on him by the disk.

The thing that has always stuck with me was how upset my mom was that day. I had never seen her like that before.
 
Not much of thriller here but still an unusual event that’s stuck with me. We had an orange male tabby that was a rescue. He was found by my sister in a dumpster as a kitten. Even though he was lacking in feline social graces (very high strung and a bit bitey) he was with my family for years. We’d moved to a new rural area where cats were on the menu for the local wildlife so we tried our best to keep him indoors. Being born a wild thing he was utterly miserable until we relented and let him explore the vicinity with supervision. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough to satisfy his need to be free-range so I eventually installed a cat flap. Of course he assumed this was just another of my plots to do him harm so he was highly suspicious - but eventually he tried it. Once. That was it, after exiting on his own he never returned, at least in the conventional sense. On three occasions over the next week I saw him in our yard, but each time it was odd. It’s difficult for me to describe but each viewing was “off”. In each occurrence he was about 40’ - 60’ away so he was plainly visible for 2 - 3 seconds but there was something ephemeral about his appearance. In each case he was moving away from me as if he was spooked but not so fast that I couldn’t recognize him. End of story, no further sightings. There were no drugs, poor eyesight, or psychological aberrations involved. As I mentioned there are virtually no outdoor cats in the area so I doubt he had a coincidental doppelgänger. We told the kids that he’d probably tried to return to our previous home but I suspect he was a dinner guest of our local coyotes. It struck me as sad that even though he didn’t seem to care for us much he still wanted to return to where he felt safe.
 
To add to my 'why some and not others' question above, I'd like to add - why is it mostly domestic pets? If the mechanism for creating ghosts exists such that we can sometimes 'see' our pets - why does the same mechanism not mean that we sometimes 'see' ghost hedgehogs, or badgers, or crows? Either animals can become ghosts or they can't, if they can - why not those? And I know there are occasional sightings where people see a ghost cat in their house when they don't have one, so it's clearly not some sort of psychic link with the animal in question. So why are there no ghost pigs roaming fields? I've heard of ghost horses, but no ghost cows?
 
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