Pets Have Ghosts Too, Don't They?

You’ve gotta be kidding me. Pets have ghosts too?

Unfortunately, Google suggests as much with the volume of hits. If you Google “Pets ghosts” you get 1,570,000 of them. That’s a big number even if you allow for the fact that many of these hits refer to pets being able to sense ghosts.

To summarise:

• Cats have got them nailed
• Dogs can sniff them out
• Goldfish are pretty useless

According to one site, which may be accurate but never named its source, there are half as many sightings of ghost animals as there are of ghost people.The anecdotal stories abound. A phantom bull terrier called Essex haunts the passage leading to the bar in the Star Inn at Ingatestone. This ghost dog is, so they say, visible only to other dogs. In Witchita, Kansas, a Mrs Cady was awakened by the barking of her dead dog, discovered a thief in her kitchen and drove him off. In a similar incident, a Mrs Kresgal, of New York, was awakened by the barking of her dead collie dog to discover that the house was on fire.

Does anything strike you as odd about this collection of ghostly pet anecdotes?

The skeptic in me is a little unhappy with the emphasis here—compared to the ghosts of human beings. If one believes the common rationale for ghosts, you get to be a ghost (or get to form a ghost?) if you are horribly murdered—beheaded, ripped to pieces by wild animals, hung drawn and quartered or whatever. Most of us happily pass into oblivion (or the next world) without too much fuss, but tortured souls hang around to scare the living bejesus out of the occasional passer-by.

Pets are different. Horribly murdered pets meander off to pet heaven anyway, but supremely loyal pets—especially those of the rich and famous, hang around to continue to charm us all, or save our lives if necessary. (I couldn’t find a single reference on the web to a headless pet ghost, by the way).

So are all pet ghosts benevolent? Not if you believe Dr. Terje Lund, head of the International Council for Paranormal Activities. The good Dr says that there are six signs that you have a pet ghost:

1. Unexplained puddles on the floor.
2. Objects that have been moved.
3. Unexplained indentations on sofas or chairs.
4. Odd noises.
5. Strange smells.
6. Missing food.

According to the expert Dr. (for he has had a team collect data and study the phenomenon) pet ghosts return to strict households they occupied in order to do the things that were forbidden to them in their lives. How quaint. Personally, I think that someone should Fedex the good Dr. some marbles—to replace the ones he’s clearly lost