Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

Apparently I come from a long line of mediums (my gran tells me), but I haven’t experienced any feelings or sensations, so I don’t really look into it. I do however love a good ghost story! I guess I believe in ghosts, but I’m not the type to assume that strange occurrences are ghosts, I firstly try to explain them away. Some however cannot be explained away such as the few small experiences I’ve had with animals.

First: When I was younger, about 8 I guess, I lived on a small holding (small farm) with my parents and grandparents. My grandparents had a few Yorkshire terriers and I remember one day going downstairs to see them and one of the dogs, named Netty, was staring at something in the middle of the room just to the side of me. She stared and I called her name over and over and started to wave my hand in front of her face. She just tried to look past my hand and kept staring. She then continued to follow something with her head past me and down the hallway. I looked all this time to see what she was looking at but never saw anything, no cobwebs, moths, dust. The horrible thing was that her eyes were looking at something quite tall. I cant quite remember whether that occasion was before or after my Uncle died, so I cant use that as an excuse really.

Second: In a new place, I was around 16 or so. Just a short story, but I found it very odd. I will take this moment to say we have always owned cats! and I love them! I sat in with my parents watching TV in the living room. I decided to go upstairs to my room and promptly got up and headed for the stairs. At this moment Rocky (my mums cat) decided to race me up. You know how animals have to be the first ones up and the first ones down the stairs if you own dogs and cats!

So I run up the stairs after him when he stopped dead at the top! This was so sudden I nearly ran over him, stopped myself and nearly fell on him. He stood there looking into my bedroom door which was slightly open, but pitch-black inside as it was night time and no lights were on. The fur rose on his back and he let out an almighty hiss, then turned around in an instant, nearly crashed into my legs, went under them and ran back down the stairs.

I watched him, then looked to my door pausing. Suddenly I didn’t feel like going in there. Then I thought maybe it was just one of the other cats and he was just seeing things, I went into my room and searched but nothing was there.

Third: Moved again, this time with my sister and ‘then’ boyfriend (ex). I acquired a cat called Patches, she is (I still have her) white and ginger, her tail is all ginger. I was in the living room with the door shut one night when I thought I saw patches go up the stairs through the glass. The door has that wavy glass in it you can see shapes through. I saw a white cat go up the first set of stairs slowly, so I naturally called out Patches name. I got up opened the door and went up the stairs, no cat, I searched everywhere but there was only one door open, my room, and she wasn’t in there. She later came in that night.

I will also mention at this point that we had a magnetic catflap, so other cats cant get in (nor were there white cats around, only a couple of tabbies and a black one). Also you can hear it when a cat comes through it and it hadn’t occurred to me that I hadn’t heard the catflap. The second time was when I was getting ready for work, I think this was January 2006. I was putting on my coat when I noticed again at the corner of my eye, a cat at the bottom of the stairs, wander from the kitchen into the living room. I called out Patches name again and thought I’d say goodbye, so I went to the living room and again no cat. When I say ‘out of the corner of my eye’, I don’t mean ‘I think’ I saw something, if you pick up a chocolate bar or anything, and put it beside you but don’t look at it, you can still see it there, you know its there at the corner of your eye. Well this is what its like. Especially when that object happens to be moving!

Third time I had my 13 year old cousin over. We were in a room where I kept some reptiles (used to keep lizards), he loved my bearded dragon and we have a lot in common. Anyway we decided to leave them in peace so my cousin left the room first and started playing with a wine cork on the banister at the top of the stairs. I closed the door and saw again what I thought was my cat sat at the base of the stairs, it got up and lifted its tail as if it had been waiting and walked around the banister like it was going to climb the stair to come and meet us. I leaned over the banister (this looked down onto the hallway not the stairs) and called to her. I then walked around to the stairs where this cat had walked to and there was nothing on the stairs.& Since my cousin had witnessed me do this, I asked him if he’d seen a cat in the hallway, he said he hadn’t. It then occurred to me as I put the image back through my mind, that the cats tail I had seen was white, and my cats tail is ginger. So it couldn’t have been her anyway!

Fourth time. Basically I was in the kitchen cooking dinner. I had rather a large hot dish I was holding onto with a cloth. I suddenly became aware my cat was in the middle of the kitchen floor as I turned, and I had to step over her to get to the over. Whilst I did this I was saying ‘oh for crying out loud Patches, move it!’

When I turned nothing was there, I would have plainly seen if she’d left the room, or even moved from that spot. I started calling it ghost cat in the end, but that was the last time I saw it before I moved. I actually kinda miss experiencing this. But I’m sure its not the last time.

Recently I did think I saw a ginger cat jump off my parents wall as I walked past but when I looked of course it wasn’t there, and I looked far too fast for it to disappear anywhere. But that could have been anything.

There have been other small things, but I do tend to try and dismiss them. What I have said above happened, and I cant as easily dismiss it, so thought I’d share it instead.

My gran always sees a black dog around before one of her animals dies. She recalls it each time. The last time she saw it was before Netty died (2008), the dog in the first story.

She was very old, but the black dog appeared under her kitchen table, a week before Netty actually had to be put to sleep. She sees the dog the same way I saw that cat, at the corner of her eye, thinking its one of hers, then realizing its far too big to be a Yorkshire terrier, and no dog is ever there when she looks properly. I find it sad.

My gran has many stories to tell. I’m wondering if I’ll have more, I kinda hope so, but dread it at the same time.

Sent in by Penny, Copyright 2009 TrueGhostTales.com