Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

The Watchful Spirit
Phantom Felines

by Tammy Harsma

Starting at a very young age, around eight or nine, I had a spirit cat that used to visit me at night as I was going to bed. I could very distinctly feel it jump up on my bed, walk across the bed and my feet, and curl up next to my legs. This never frightened me. In fact, I never thought it to be out of the ordinary. I’m not sure which cat this was because my family had many as I was growing up, but I had the impression that it was the spirit of a cat that my friends and I had found in the road just after it had been hit by a car. I just stood there feeling so sad for the cat as my friend got a shovel to remove the poor animal out of the road. It has been about thirty-three years and many homes later, but this cat still visits me occasionally to this day.

I have had other encounters as well, mostly the “catching something out of the corner of your eye” variety, but I had one very unique encounter about three years ago.

In July 2001 I lost a cat that was very special to me. I had him for thirteen and a half years, through hard times and good times; he was always there with me. My family and I knew that the day Stinky (yes, Stinky) died was going to be difficult for me. What we hadn’t realized was how hard it was going to be on my other cat, Kitten. She was very lonely without him.

Kitten never seemed to rebound from Stinky’s death, so I thought the best thing to do would be to bring another cat into the home that she could befriend. My husband and I agreed that we would get a kitten and give it to my daughter as a birthday present.

From the minute Boomer came into our home he just seemed to fit into the family. What a personality! I have to say he reminded me a lot of my beloved Stinky. Within months it seemed as if Boomer had always been with us. One game the little guy developed was to try to run into my bedroom whenever the door was opened. I guess his curiosity got the better of him (as the saying goes) because that door was always closed and no cats were allowed into that room—it was off limits.

One night a few months after Boomer had joined us, I woke very suddenly from my sleep. It wasn’t from a bad dream or from a noise; I just opened my eyes. I was facing my husband, whose back was to me. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I noticed the outline of a cat sitting next to my husband’s head. I could see that the cat was staring at my husband, and my first thought was, That darn cat snuck into the bedroom!

Well, as I lay there wondering if I should reach out and grab him or just forget about it and go back to sleep, I could see that he was turning toward me. I closed my eyes; I didn’t want him to know I was awake and spook him and have him run under the bed or get him all riled up. A few minutes passed and I opened my eyes—no cat. Darn! He must have run under the bed.

I decided that I would make a pit stop to the bathroom and then open the bedroom door and walk to my daughter’s bedroom in the hopes that Boomer would follow me. As I walked into my daughter’s bedroom I noticed that lying on my daughter’s bed were both cats—sleeping.

I wasn’t frightened, but I knew that Stinky had come for a visit. I haven’t seen him since then, but occasionally the cats look up at the top of the stairs as if something is there. We know that Stinky is watching over our family.