Ghost Animals

There are thousands of stories about ghosts and there are plenty of people who say the ghosts they saw were recognized as people they either knew or recognized, because of their dress or from photographs they had seen. When you talk to people who claim to be paranormal investigators, I say claim only because there is a lot of doubt about the paranormal, they will tell you there are different types of ghosts or spirits and they are not all human. They claim some are demons, some are human, some might be creatures from another dimension and some are animal spirits. There are those who believe humans are not the only creatures with a soul and that all living creatures may have one. This is contrary to many religious beliefs and because of that many doubt this is true. There are things people have seen which have convinced them spirits exist.

One of the problems is we have to subtract some things from what could have been seen. First of all a person could have a mental problem, what was seen could have been a hoax, a sighting could have been caused by something which is completely explainable, but seemed supernatural at the time. Some people say even if these things are accounted for and don’t apply, we may find out some day that what we are seeing is caused by a window into other dimensions and universes. Over the centuries there have been many reports of animal spirits being seen. Our Native American friends state they have seen some of these spirits. They believe a spirt guide chooses them and it is an animal and the human has no say in what type of animal it is. You can’t say I feel like a wolf therefor I would like a wolf as a spirit guide.

A couple bought a new home. When the wife entered she caught sight of a medium sized cat which walked in front of her. The house had been locked up so there was no way a cat could have gotten in and when it was searched for no cat was found. A little later the cat appeared by the refrigerator as if waiting to be fed and the startled woman turned her head for a second and the cat was gone and not in the house. Her husband also saw the cat sometime later, but again it disappeared. The couple couldn’t believe their eyes and both now had doubts about what they saw until a guest asked them about their cat which was seen in the living room. They were all convinced they had seen the spirit of a deceased cat. There are many cases on record of people who reported seeing their deceased pets. Some people believe seeing beloved pets which have died is just wishful thinking on the part of the viewer, while others believe the pets can’t bring themselves to leave the homes where they were loved so much.

There is a story about the battle at Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Apparently a cavalry soldier and his horse had been killed, but then the horse and rider appeared in ghostly form in front of some troops, galloping into battle again. It is said the troops who saw this sight were in a state of shock. Sometimes even though an animal ghost can’t be seen, it can be heard. A woman was very attached to her dog which had died. She kept hearing whimpering sounds coming from behind her, but kept dismissing it as being in her imagination or from the television, but the sounds continued and they sounded the same as her beloved dog used to make and she could no longer dismiss the sounds as they continued and she knew her dog was watching her.

Near a large American city is a preserve which leads out to a busy road. Further up the road is a stable with horses which people can ride. They cross the road and ride into the preserve. There are no lights or any traffic control and several people and horses have been run down and killed over the years. Many people have reported seeing a ghostly horse and rider crossing the road and as they watched the horse and rider would disappear right in the middle of the road and right in front of the people watching. The fascinating thing is they have seen a ghost human riding a ghost horse, indicating animal and human spirits can cooperate much as animals and humans do on earth. One mother told of a dog which had to be put to sleep, I hate that term, when her daughter was a tiny child. Years later the child asked her mother if they ever had a dog and described a dog she kept seeing around the house. The description fit the dog which was destroyed. The mother said she has been hearing the dog walk around the house for years.

One family had a dog they loved very much and when the dog died he was buried in the yard. The family said they wanted him to be near the family. A couple of days later while they were watching television the wife glanced up and there plain as day was the dog sitting on the side watching them. They could all see it and said they didn’t feel scared at all and felt lucky the dog loved them so much it wanted to see them one more time before it disappeared. A family had a farm with chickens in a hen house. As years went by the hens became old and died one by one. One of the chickens was a very nervous one and was always running. It had a very unusual color and was easy to recognize. The time finally came when even that chicken became old and died. The hens were all buried in the same place. Sometime later while the farmer was doing repairs he noticed a chicken running crazily by his barn, it was the same chicken which he had buried some time ago. After that time he never saw it again, it just disappeared.

Martin County in North Carolina has a swampland known as the Haunted Woods. Strange things have been reported in these woods for many centuries. It is said the haunting in the woods is very unusual because there are so many different ghosts which have been reported. Besides balls of light which float through the swamp and are said to be the spirits of settlers who were murdered by the Indians, there are many different animal ghosts. People have reported seeing ghost cows, deer and dogs and claim they are very pale. There were a lot of deaths in this swamp and there was a tree in the swamp known as the lynching tree where many people were hung. So many ghosts have been seen in the area one has to wonder if there is something about the area which leads to spirits congregating there?

There is an interesting story about the hanging tree, even though it has nothing to do with animal spirits. It is said after a horse thief was hung there, his ghost would appear every night hanging from the tree until it finally stopped appearing. A group of people gathered around the tree one night and formed a circle for some reason and the ghost appeared and they all ran from the area.