Haunted Places - Understanding Paranormal Animals

Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

Haunted Places
Understanding Paranormal Animals

—Andrew Green, parapsychologist.

Throughout the centuries, tales exist of animal apparitions appearing to the living as a warning of impending danger or death. Animal spirits have also been known to appear, either visually or in dreams, to act as guides or to comfort people in their grief over the death of a beloved pet. There are even terrifying stories about animals returning from the dead to seek revenge against their tormentors and killers. But the main reasons why most animal ghosts (particularly those of pets) appear to the living are to let their loved ones know they are all right in the next world, or simply to bid them farewell. This type of paranormal phenomena most frequently occurs when there exists a strong emotional bond between individuals and their pets.

Often, after the animal’s “mission” has been accomplished, its spirit finds peace and is never seen or heard again. (That is, of course, until the animal and its loved ones are reunited on the other side.)

Haunted Places

Just as there are houses and other areas that are haunted by the ghosts of persons who died or were killed there, so, too, are there many places where the ghosts of cats, dogs, birds, and other animals have been encountered. The Whaley House and Arundel Castle are two such places.

Preserved as a historic museum, the Whaley House in San Diego is officially recognized as “a genuine haunted house” by both the United States Chamber of Commerce and the State of California. Within this mid-nineteenth-century mansion, visitors have sighted the fleeting apparition of a dog on a number of occasions. On the other side of the Atlantic, a spectral white bird is but one of the many ghosts that haunt England’s eleventh-century Arundel Castle. When a death is imminent, the bird appears and flutters against the windows.

Another interesting place where animal ghosts have been sighted is the L.A. Pet Memorial Park (originally called L.A. Pet Cemetery), which is located in Calabasas, California. Founded and dedicated on September 4, 1928, it is the oldest facility of its kind on the West Coast. Its beautifully landscaped hillsides are the final resting place for many of Hollywood’s animal actors (such as Hopalong Cassidy’s horse, Topper, and the Little Rascals’ pit bull, Petey) as well as the pets of movie stars and the rich and famous. Over 40,000 animals, ranging from hamsters to lions, are interred there. However, the majority of the graves belong to dogs and cats.

Many different animal ghosts have been sighted at L.A. Pet Memorial Park over the years. But the one that draws the most attention is Kabar—a Great Dane whose master was the Italian film star and heartthrob, Rudolph Valentino. The dog, which died in 1929 (three years after Valentino’s death) is said to be a friendly and playful ghost that appears from time to time and licks the people who walk by his grave. Some visitors to the cemetery have also reported hearing the sound of a dog panting in the area where the Great Dane is buried.

My husband and I visited the pet cemetery on Halloween of 2005. We arrived there at 9:30 a.m. and walked around the grounds and took pictures. We also took a number of electromagnetic field readings with our ELF-Zone detector, all of which were in the normal range. (A high or fluctuating reading is, in some cases, an indicator of paranormal activity.) After an hour and a half, we finally located the grave of Kabar and took another reading; it was normal. I then knelt down, placed the palms of my hands upon Kabar’s grave marker, and started talking to the dog as if he were still alive. Neither my husband nor I felt any presence or cold spots, and Kabar gave us no sign. (Perhaps it was because his spirit was no longer earthbound, or maybe he somehow sensed I was a “cat person” at heart.)

After a while we moved on and came upon the grave marker of Hopalong Cassidy’s horse, Topper. We said hello to him, took another reading, and then decided to call it a day. As we walked away from the grave, both my husband and I heard the clear and distinct whinny of a horse. It was quite an odd thing since there were no horses (at least not living ones) anywhere around and, with the exception of a gardener who was working on the other side of the cemetery, we were the only ones there. We left the cemetery with the feeling that Topper’s ghost had acknowledged our presence.