Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

A Visitation from Vanna
Hounds and Hauntings

by Kathleen Cunzeman

We had recently got a puppy to “replace” our fourteen-year-old gold lab, Vanna, who passed a few months before. The new dog is also gold colored. At thirty-five-pounds, she is much smaller than Vanna, about half of her size. We also have a sixty-five-pound black Lab.

My husband’s mother and stepfather were visiting from Florida. We live in Maryland and it had probably been six years since they last came to our house. Anyway, there was much excitement when they arrived. The puppy, which is very friendly, was jumping up and down at the door and we were doing our best to contain her. The black Lab, of course, was also waiting at the door to greet them, but just wagging his tail in his laid-back way.

They finally made it into the living room, and we stopped and talked there for a few minutes. They wanted to see the family room on the lower level of our tri-level house that we had remodeled last year, so I took them downstairs. My husband took the puppy upstairs, put a leash on her, and brought her back downstairs.

While we were down there, my father-in-law asked me, “When did you get the third dog?”

I said, “What do you mean, Bob, by the third dog? Our other dog died in November, right before my father. We got the puppy in January.”

My mother-in-law said, “Yes, Bob, I know you remember me telling you the dog died and how upset they were over it.”

And he said again, “Well, there are three dogs in this house. I clearly saw three dogs greet us at the door and three dogs standing in the living room when we were talking.”

I was really curious at this point and asked him what the other dog looked like. He said it was a large, gold dog. I pointed down at the puppy and my black Lab and asked, “Bob, are you sure you saw another dog, because we only have two dogs.”

He got a little annoyed with me at this point and said, “I know what I saw and I am positive there were three dogs in the living room.”

Bob is a very practical and intelligent man, and my mother-in-law later told me that in the car all the way to the restaurant he insisted that we had three dogs. He was convinced we were lying for some reason about only having two dogs because he was so adamant about three greeting him.

I believe the third dog he saw must have been Vanna in spirit. I have seen her, too, at times, and she probably just dropped by because of my in-laws’ special visit to our home.