By Elisa Black-Taylor
When I did the original article Can Cats See Ghosts back in 2011, I never dreamed it would receive the backlashing of comments from a simple photo of my cat Cocoa. I’ve included it in the collage, along with two new ones I’ve taken since the death of my beloved dog Dreyfuss.
I was criticized on the first article by Christians who told me it was dangerous to dabble into this subject. Not only that, I was also pounded by non-Christians who don’t like the fact I’m a Christian.
So I’m going to approach this new story in a different manner than the first. I apologize for it being a bit long, but it’s necessary since there are two events I want to tell the readers about. I have the photos to back them up. Then I hope some of you will be brave enough to share similar experiences.
First of all, Laura and I really miss Dreyfuss. He was always either snoozing on the couch or in the middle of the kitchen floor. Since his death on September 6, we’ve had a few strange occurrences here at home. The first one was the night after his death when I heard his claws scraping on my bedroom floor. There was also food missing from his bowl until I told him ghost dogs don’t need to eat.
GHOST ORB IN THE KITCHEN
The event connected to that photo happened a few months back. Our cats Midnight and Brinkley were sitting in the living room floor staring into the kitchen. They sat there for the longest doing that. Finally they decided to go together into the kitchen. I had my camera in my hand and fired off a shot at them. The photo pictured is what showed up.
I didn’t even realize the photo possibly WAS a ghost orb until one of my friends commented on it once I put it online. I only posted it because it looked interesting. There were no lights on in the room that could have bounced off a reflection. The two cats were sitting under the feeding table approximately two feet from where Dreyfuss used to lay. In fact, that’s where he was laying that final day before I left for work.
GHOST ORB ON THE TABLE WHERE HIS URN IS KEPT
The second photo I took was made back in March. I went into my bedroom to find Lucky laying on his favorite pillow. I keep it on my nightstand next to the urn from where I had Dreyfuss cremated. Let me add Lucky kept watch next to Dreyfuss that night after he died. Lucky lay by his covered body most of the night. He still sleeps next to his urn every night on the pillow I placed there to make him more comfortable.
The first photo I took of Lucky was normal. The orb showed up in the second one. I like to think Dreyfuss left a part of himself to watch over me while I sleep.
RESEARCH
I’ve done some reading on how many people who have lost their cats are sometimes paid a visit by that cat. Some hear purring, while others feel their cat laying on their feet in the bed as they drift off to sleep. There are hundreds of cases like mine where the survivor of a pet is contacted in some way by their pet. Most call it comforting.
Cats are also known to have extra sharp senses that should make us mere humans envious. They hear better, see better and perhaps even sniff something out of the ordinary.
Many skeptics debunk orb photos as light bouncing off the ceiling. Which could happen except I was photographing Midnight and Brinkley in near total darkness while they sat under the table. And I didn’t have the overhead light in my bedroom on at the time of Lucky’s photo.
I also realize things that test universal laws and can’t be proven are considered impossible for the simple fact they can’t be proven. Whether a pet can come back in this manner can neither be proven nor can it be proven impossible. In other words, unless I have proof these photos are real and not doctored up, they will be considered by most to be fake. That’s just how it is.
I’d like to tell everyone here that I don’t have time to take fake photographs. I wanted to share these with my friends at PoC, and I really don’t care if anyone believes me or not. I know what happened and I made the photos. I did this article to let those of you who have experienced anything like this to know you aren’t alone in what happened to you. Yes, I got a few photos, and they make me feel a bit less insane for writing on this topic.
And I don’t want religion to enter into this article if at all possible. I believe cat afterlife and people afterlife are totally different. As Monty’s mom (Ruth) has written, animals are the true innocents. I’d like to believe they can come back to us. If not to stay, then to give comfort at times when we miss them most.
THE COLLAGE
Pictured above is the collage I did of the three photos. The top left is the photo I made of Brinkley and Midnight under the feeding table in the kitchen. A flash was used in that one. The photo on the right shows Cocoa not long after his rescue. I had made two photos prior to that one. They can be seen on the other ghost article link above. I heard wings flapping just before making the photo with Cocoa. I thought a bird had somehow gotten in our home. I’m not positive, but it looks like a wing superimposed over the photo. The bottom photo of Lucky was made using my cell phone so no flash was involved. That’s the same photo. The one on the left is the original. I didn’t do any improvements to it such as contrast or lighting. The one on the right was adjusted for depth and darkness. See the “whatever” showing up in the middle of the photo.
DO YOU BELIEVE?
Readers, do you believe these are ghost orbs? Have any of you ever had a strange experience after the death of a pet? Or am I the only crazy one on this website today? Are any of you brave enough to come forward and offer your own story? It’s a shame this isn’t Halloween, because the storyline would be great.
I am a born again Christian. i live in a 200 yr old home. My dogs see things all the time and growl @ them. We’ve gotten use to it. I know if you’re Saved , you’ve ask forgiveness of sin and ask Christ into your heart you are on your way to Heaven. So i believe it’s lost souls and who haven’t been cast into hell yet. And the animals can see them, where we can’t … Jane
Thanks Jane for visiting and sharing your thoughts. I found them interesting.
A lot of people live each day and plan for the future. I live each day and fill it as if it could be my last. We never really know when we leave home each day that we’ll make it back. That’s just being realistic and not morbid or anything.
Excellent way to live. Most of us live too cautiously and live partial lives because of that and then one day it is all over. We only get one chance unless you come back as a ghost 🙂
Michael I am like you – I don’t believe in god but I think there is a middle ground. All energy transforms, it does not ever die. It transforms into other forms of energy. That simple principle which is scientific enough to concern serious consideration of metaphysics and the possibilities thereof. It’s a heavy thing to write about so I don’t feel up to going into a massive long monologue about it but I do believe anything is possible. However I also agree with your point that our fear of death has created a number of things. What then is creativity and what powers does it have? There are many questions put it that way. I wouldn’t be too fixed 🙂
We do believe that something lingers on after death. It is a complicated subject and we don’t know the answers. Also humankind is still fairly basic and stupid. Perhaps in a thousand years or ten thousand years we’ll understand it better.
I agree with regard to the stupid part. That stupidity is emotional for the most part. We are also have the capacity to be very concious and aware if we can not let our emotions get in the way. I think it’s a discussion that is tricky because to be objective one has to accept another person’s experience as being totally real for them. IT then gets murky but simple facts do remain. I think you certainly won’t experience some things if you don’t believe you can and if you do then that’s different. I would say however, regardless of experience and what you want from it or don’t want, that it’s important to live every day knowing that many things are possible and that they can happen anytime. It’s just a good open way to move forward without specifics. It helps reconcile differences between people and so on. I think alot of humanities stupidity actually comes entirely of being closed in ways that block our capacity to be aware. I think the point I am making is that without going into specifics it’s important to generally be open so you don’t miss out and so you understand things and steer well clear of ignoring and ignorance. I have always found keeping such things in check has led me to many good places in my life I would not have otherwise seen. I have made good friends I would not have otherwise had. It’s always been thing I have trusted in and lived by and which will always make me confident I am not getting lost and on the wrong track. I just have to remember to stay open towards people because sometimes it’s easy to forget them with all these cats around 🙂
I asked Michelle if she thought cats could see ghosts and she immediately said, Yes. She likes a TV programme on haunted buildings in the UK.
I have difficulty in believing in ghosts. I have a very scientific and slightly cynical view of life 😉 This does not predispose me to believing in ghosts.
I believe we like to think that ghosts exist because they are a form of afterlife and we are bloody scared of dying.
The human’s fear of dying has created lots of concepts, behaviors and beliefs that help people to feel more comfortable with dying:
That sort of thing. If there are ghosts I would definitely agree that cats could see them because of their heightened senses. However, cats don’t believe in ghosts so they don’t see them.
We have those tv programs here in the US also. You can even sign up to go visit haunted places in real life. My cousin did it and went with a group to a haunted theater. The group hosting the trip brought all this sophisticated equipment, just like on some of those shows. I would never go on one of those tours of haunted places. I get uncomfortable watching those shows sometimes. All I know is that there was something wrong with my parent’s house while I was growing up that isn’t wrong with the house I now own with my husband. I can’t prove it. I didn’t have any sophisticated equipment. Most of the time I didn’t even see or hear things that were out of the ordinary– it was just a feeling. A feeling I don’t want to relive. What’s happening in Elisa’s home does scare me, even though it could be completely harmless. That there is something, I have no doubt. But the cats seem ok with whatever it is, so it might not be evil. My childhood pets were NOT ok with whatever in my parent’s house. One of them ran away. I can’t prove that a demonic force drove him away any more than I can prove my experiences were real. But I believe in evil. My father is drinking himself to death and I don’t think he has a chance of stopping so long as he’s still in that house. Since he retired he’s in that house, alone in that house, a lot. It’s not good. I wish they would move out of there. I used to think the drinking was my fault, and maybe it partly is. But mostly I think it’s whatever is in that house that is driving his alcoholism.
My late husband’s plane crashed right across the street from that house. When I was a kid one of our cats was hit by a car in the road next to the house. Before that a little boy was hit by a car right in the same intersection. I am darn careful when I pull up to my parent’s house. I think whatever is there is dangerous to the point that it can kill and it’s busy killing my father while I sit here thinking if I’d just have went to PT school instead of just being an assistant, then my dad wouldn’t be so disappointed in me and he wouldn’t drink so much. There’s real evil in this world. Most of it is in the hearts of human beings, but I think there are older beings that humans, spiritual beings of great power, who are also evil and our enemies. So I tend to distrust any supernatural experience. All mine have been bad and continue to be so.
A woman featured on one of those shows about haunted places had both her pet rabbits die. Every night the rabbits would thump a warning– they could sense the evil presence. Finally they both died from fright. So if there’s something there that is evil it can harm your pets.
Ruth, I trust what you say because you are a very sensible person. I am not convinced either way about evil spirits and ghosts etc..
Sorry to hear about your father. I can fully understand how he feels. It seems he needs purpose and hope. It is hard to find when you get old.
When my father first retired he was doing very well. He wasn’t drinking much at all– health problems had somewhat scared him away from it, I think. But whatever the reason he was doing well. He keeps busy. He has so many hobbies– wood carving, model railroads, home improvement projects. He doesn’t just sit and watch the boob tube. He also has a strong faith in God. When I was a little girl he and I were painting my bed frame in the basement and I was so terrified because I could sense something was there. Dad didn’t say, “It’s your imagination, there’s no such thing…” He said, “Don’t you believe in God?” He gave me a wooden cross to hold onto at night. He taught me that Jesus will protect us from all our fears, real or imagined, and even if we are imagining things He won’t make fun of us for it, He’ll just protect us and get us through our scariest moments. I think I need to be more like that little girl praying and clutching that cross through those long nights in that house. I’ve been trying too hard to rely on myself to fix everything, including my father’s drinking, and it’s more than any human being can do or bear.
I still think my father needs to get out of there. My parents would be a lot better off if they moved down here to the city near us. They would be better off if the next time they buy a house they pay attention to the feelings you get walking through it, and not just shrug them off. At four years old I knew something was wrong in that house. “How can we live here,” I wondered, “when it’s already full of people?” I couldn’t see them, but I sensed that the house was full of “people.” But adults see only a great house in a super location at a steal of a price– you’d be a fool to turn that down because of a feeling, wouldn’t you? But forty years later, it’s not so great. None of us ever had as much time in that house and time alone in that house for such an extended time as my father has had since his retirement. He’s not going downhill just because he’s getting older and doesn’t have enough stimulation. He’s creative like me, and could easily keep himself busy. I do when I have time off. I think there’s another force at work driving him to despair. Add that to the effects of the alcohol and advancing hepatic encephalopathy and there is no good end to this story. Not without some kind of miracle or divine intervention.
Sometimes animals are smarter than people. Our cat who didn’t like it there and ran away was the smartest of any of us.
I trust your judgement and it is very sad. At a certain point in time, of course, one does not need a reason to drink because it becomes a fixed habit. One crosses the wire and becomes addicted. All the previous reasons are then just the original ones and the addiction takes over.
Or perhaps since cats don’t try to rationalize whats in front of them and don’t know to be skeptical to the idea of ghosts they react to what they see and hear. If something is right in front of them they don’t try to talk themselves out of seeing it.
I spent a lot of time talking myself out of what was happening when I was a kid. Then I accepted it, but never talked about it. Once my sister and I did kind of tell some kids who were playing with us in my parent’s basement. I felt bad about it later, like I had been mean trying to scare them. But I don’t think that was really our motivation. I think my sister and I needed to talk about it. Once we both moved out we talked about it more, but at first only if we’d been drinking. When we were roommates after my first husband died my sister and I would gather up the loose change from under the sofa cushions and go buy a six pack of Blatz (ugh) and drink one or two of them together. (We didn’t know then, or hadn’t admitted, that our dad had a drinking problem, so we didn’t see anything wrong with drinking. Now we kind of avoid it for the most part.) But at that time it was only when we’d had a beer or two that we would talk about “what’s wrong with mom and dad’s house?” It’s like it took a little liquid courage to even bring it up and then after I’d be sorry we did because all night I’d be creeped out thinking about it. It almost made it worse knowing that she had had weird experiences apart from me, and that she also had the impression that something was wrong. It suddenly couldn’t just be my imagination because another human brain was thinking the same thing I was, quite apart from any input from me.
The eerie and bizarre behaviour of my cats, especially “Matahari” makes me feel that cats do have an extrasensory premonition of happenings good or bad. Do Ghosts exist ? Have you seen Ghosts or had paranormal occurrences that seemed too true to be true1 Ultimately, i personally feel thats in the human mind and akin to God whom we can’t see but believe in faith similarly the Paranormal amg ghosts could be existing.If there is “RELIGION” then there has to also be “Ghosts” as paranormal occurences are as inexplicable as religion. Atheists are comfortable in their belief that there is no God and similarly there will be numerous believers in Ghosts and the Paranormal.As for me, not ashamed to admit that i get a bit nervous when my female cat matahari behaves very abnormally compared to her normal behaviour.
Even though I don’t believe in ghosts or God it is not a total disbelief. Sometimes I waver and think, there could be something going on that people can’t explain.
I know what you mean, Rudolph. When I was a kid my cat would sometimes get all puffy and look at something that I couldn’t see. I really hated that. It creeped me out. I’m glad Monty never does that. He does sometimes stare with great interest at the ceiling in our bedroom. I haven’t figured that out. There’s nothing there, but he looks with interest at this one corner of the ceiling quite frequently. But he doesn’t get puffy or defensive like my childhood cats. Maybe he sees some cobwebs fluttering up there (I’m not the best housekeeper) or it’s just the way the light from my bedside lamp hits that spot– I really don’t know.
The day after I saw a strange white ghostly figure standing in my backyard my cats 6 of them went to that spot and formed a cicle and walked around that spot 6 times and then walked away.I think they were trying to protect me so the figure would not come again and I have not seen the figure again.
Nancy that would have really scared the crap out of me. What I’ve gone thru hasn’t been at all scary of distressing. Quite the opposite.
That would have concerned me too. It is an experience that has the makings of a part of a TV programme on ghosts. It sounds like an interesting experience.
That is really creepy. It’s like your cats were protecting you and it seems to have worked!