Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

Animal Sensitivity to Hauntings
Understanding Paranormal Animals

Many believe that animals, including pets, are gifted with a higher degree of psychic sensitivity than the average person. They possess the uncanny ability to sense impending danger and, where the supernatural is concerned, quite often are able to see, hear, and feel things that normal human senses are unable to perceive.

In Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience, Rosemary Ellen Guiley states, “Many psychics like to have animals accompany them when they are investigating apparitions and haunted houses, because animals are assumed to be more sensitive to ghosts and spirits.” She also says, “Many dogs and cats have been known to visibly react with fear when placed in a suspected haunted house,” which I know to be a fact from my own personal experiences.

Many years ago my family lived in an old Victorian house in upstate New York. The place was haunted, and strange, unexplained things happened there from time to time, such as loud banging sounds coming from the attic, window shades rolling up by themselves, and grayish misty forms that materialized from out of nowhere, glide across a room, and then suddenly vanish. Prior to such happenings, one of our housecats—a female Himalayan named Delilah—would often exhibit signs of uneasiness and go into hiding. Occasionally she stalked or stared at something that was invisible to our eyes. The fur on her back and tail would bristle all of a sudden, she’d hiss or give a low growl, and then take off running as though frightened by something that only she could see. This curious behavior was almost always observed in the evening hours and was usually accompanied by a noticeable drop in the room’s temperature—a phenomenon commonly associated with ghostly visitations.