Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

My Ethereal Feline Encounter
Phantom Felines

(anonymous)

My family had a cat named Tuffy from March 24, 1978, to March 28, 2000. Tuffy was a ginger tabby with looks similar to Morris the 9 Lives cat, but with less white. He came into the family from a coworker at the oil company where my dad worked. On our own, we had been unable to find another ginger tabby to replace an older cat that had to be put to sleep. This coworker mentioned he had a tabby kitten in his cat’s litter. We met Tuffy and he went home with us.

Tuffy and I grew up together. After the Yorkshire terrier came into the family, Tuffy used my room as a refuge from the terror (err … terrier). Tuffy was always protective of me to the point where he once ran off a high school boyfriend of mine. After I moved away, Tuffy and I spent plenty of quality time together when I came home to visit. On the morning of March 28, 2000, the same day a tornado struck downtown Fort Worth, Tuffy died.

Flash-forward to Friday, March 18, 2004, at my apartment in southern New Mexico…. I usually speak to my parents on Fridays in the late afternoon and was expecting their call. Around five o’clock, I turned around and saw a ghostly image of Tuffy in the blue butterfly chair in my living room. I tried to reach out and touch him and he made a hissing reaction, but with no sound Then he was gone. Two hours later, I looked over at the chair and he was there again with a scared expression. He vanished within a second or two of me seeing him. I tried calling home but got no answer.

Around ten o’clock that night, my mother called to let me know that my father had been hospitalized following an accident. I told her that I knew something had happened when Tuffy appeared. She wasn’t surprised since things like this are known to happen on her side of the family.