Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

Pet Shop Ghosts
Other Ghostly Animals

by Ed Murakami

After my retirement in the spring of 1995, my wife and I decided it would be fun to open a bookstore. Being avid readers, we had accumulated quite a number of books over the decades and felt that a shop would be the ideal way to downsize our gargantuan collection and make some room in our house. Being in business for ourselves was also something she and I had dreamed about for a very long time.

We scouted around for a while to find the right place, but soon discovered that most of the prices were way above what we could afford or the neighborhoods were unsafe or the buildings needed too much work. We were beginning to feel discouraged when luck smiled on us and we found a decent place not far from our home, priced just right! We signed the lease and set up business in what used to be a neighborhood pet shop. It was a dream come true for both of us, but it didn’t take long before my wife and I started having odd experiences that defied all rational explanation.

The first of many such experiences occurred while I was in the shop doing inventory. I felt the sensation of something brushing against my ankle. I instinctively looked down but saw nothing. Another time I could have sworn that I heard the faint fluttering of wings. I made no mention of it until a few days later when my wife reported experiencing the same sort of things. She told me she sometimes felt like eyes were watching her, even when she and I were the only ones in the shop. She added that she also felt it when she was completely alone.

I tried to assure her that it was just her imagination getting the best of her. After all, we were both rational mature adults who were taught there was a logical explanation for everything. And neither of us was silly enough to believe in such things as ghosts … that is until the night we saw one with our very own eyes.

It was the day after Halloween and we were closing up shop for the evening. I had just switched off the lights and was heading out the door with my wife when something made me turn around and take a look. Lo and behold, there was something resembling a small animal sitting there on the counter near the cash register, and it was looking straight at me! It was a misty form, about the size of a large kitten or a small puppy, and its eyes seemed to glow in the dim light from the street that filtered through the front window of the shop. I thought my eyes must have been playing tricks on me. I uttered a “What the hell?” just as my wife turned and saw it, too. She gasped loudly and then I switched the lights back on. But whatever had been sitting there watching us just a moment before seemed to vanish in the light.

Since then my wife and I have opened our minds to matters concerning ghosts and the afterlife. We have no fear of the entities that coexist with us in the shop because we realize they aren’t there to harm us. In fact, we’ve come to affectionately think of them as our little invisible pets.