Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

I had initially found this house for rent on Craigslist. It was slightly weather beaten from a tornado last April, the almost two acre yard was horribly overgrown and the interior needed a coat of paint and new carpeting. After the owner LeeLee had given us the grand tour, and apologized profusely for the condition of the place from the storm and the previous tenants, I asked for a few moments inside alone. All was peaceful. I walked outside and nodded to my husband that the house was clear. House hunting for the spirit sensitive is to say the least, frustrating. As soon as he was assured there were no houseguests from the afterlife, he said “We’ll take it.”

It was my fortieth birthday when we pulled into the driveway of our new home. It had been a grueling twenty-four hour drive from Ohio in our minivan, with my husband following behind with the rented moving truck towing his car. We were finally here in Tennessee. Hubby was to start his new job in a week, so the move had been abrupt and the trip exhausting. Toting the teenager, the dog and the pet snakes we had made it withstanding traffic jams, blinding sun in the day that burned and blistered my fair skin through the windshield, and a flat tire. We were home.

Instead of sleeping like most normal people, we decided to get right to work. After all, we had been sitting way too long and it would take a lot less time to unload the truck than it had to pack and load it. It felt good to move around after being cramped up and driving so long, so good in fact that we were nearly done after only a couple of hours. I went about the rest of the morning unpacking the kitchen and arranging the furniture, while hubby set to mowing down the hip high grass.

Once I was done with the kitchen, I gathered the empty boxes and broke them down flat. When I went out the back door to take the boxes to the barn, I had expected to find the yard difficult to navigate through the tall grass and weeds as I could hear my husband still wrestling with our droning push mower out front. I broke into a grin when I saw what he had done. He had mowed a path from the moving truck all the way to the barn. Other than a dozen or so steps out to the path, my walkway was clear. I stepped from the back deck, with the flattened boxes on my head and walked easily toward the barn.

I was halfway from the house when I heard it. The heavy, fast panting of a very large, happy, slobbering and playful dog who had run up behind me and slowed to follow at my heels. As I stepped into the barn, I turned thinking I was about to meet the neighborhood four-legged welcoming committee, and nothing. There was nothing there. My head pounded from sunburn and lack of sleep. I chalked it up to exhaustion, put the boxes down and went back to the house. Looking over the yard from the back deck I tried to process what had just happened. Spirit of a dog, owner not living here, should be attached to a human. It didn’t make sense. It broke all the rules I thought I knew of detecting spirits with my abilities. Then the unthinkable happened.

As I looked out over the tall yard, the grass started to flatten in four distinct paw print footsteps right before my eyes. I watched it. I heard it. I ran back in the house!

LeeLee had offered to let us stay with her for a night or two until our electric and water could be turned on. That evening we had dinner at her house, and showered and relaxed before heading off to bed. LeeLee and I got along beautifully and laughed and chatted like old friends. I shared with her a little about my abilities with spirit sensitivity. She was very supportive, and with that and her belief I felt pretty confident. I told her one of the reasons we were so eager to rent the house and even offered to do most of the repairs, was because I was very comfortable there, and I could sense no activity. Also, the energy that lingered there was very positive and uplifting. It had been a happy home. LeeLee nodded and smiled, for she herself had lived there since it was built, save for the brief period the previous tenants were there. Her confirmation, and her affirmation was all I needed.

“So, what’s with the dog?” I asked her. LeeLee sprayed her soda out of her nostrils. After she stopped choking, she gathered herself and asked what I meant. I relayed my experience to her, describing the dog in detail. “Oh yeah, that’s Lulu.” She said matter of factly and looking serious now. “She’s buried out a few feet from the tree in the back yard.” LeeLee’s confirmation did not stop the chill up my spine. I had walked directly across Lulu’s grave when she took up my heels to follow me to the barn.

LeeLee shared with my more of the story of Lulu’s life. Lulu had been the watchdog and protector of LeeLee and her children for many years. She had been her constant companion, and loved to instigate the other dogs through the neighborhood, getting them barking and joining her in running after the local farm fowl. Lulu was a loving family dog, playful and protective.

With this confirmation I wasn’t concerned further for my sanity, or for the nature of the canine spirit that lingers here. It wasn’t the last time Lulu followed me across the yard to the barn either. She followed me again one day when I went out to look on hubby’s workbench for a screwdriver. That time I said hello and spoke her name, and then she was gone. I was almost disappointed at the vanishing act. As a sensitive I tend to have a lot of success with interaction. This time there was none. I spoke and she was gone.

It wasn’t until recently when I relayed this story to my mother (who coincidently works with a team of paranormal investigators) in order to make some sense of it. I had been so confused about the spirit dog, that she was still there when her owner had moved on, and her spirit seemed to be confined to the out doors, not within the home. My mom reminded me though of residual spirit activity. Energy has a way of imprinting moments in time, to replay themselves over and over like a tape recorder. Though Lulu didn’t respond to me, I found comfort in knowing that her residual energy was there, lost in an ever protective loop of loyalty and love. And love, is the greatest, the strongest, most everlasting energy of all.

Sometimes as a spirit sensitive, I worry people will think I’ve lost my mind! When the ghost dog followed me, I worried I truly had… until I discovered later that I knew her owner.

Sent in by Kathy Houck, Copyright 2009