“Ghosts are a part of our world.  If you don’t believe in them, that’s because you haven’t personally met one or read the literature about them.”  – Professor Stafford Betty

I know there is skepticism surrounding ghosts, but consider that ghost sightings have been reported in every culture on Earth since the dawn of civilization.  Ghosts have been reported across all societies, all educational levels, all social strata, all religions and no religion, across millenia. Are they all wrong, all frauds or hoaxes, all the result of overactive imagination or primitive superstition? Every single one of them?

Sure, there are hoaxes and overwrought imagination. But when you scrape that away, there is still a solid, substantial body of persuasive evidence.  For overviews of that, see David Fontana’s Is There an Afterlife, Michael Schmicker’s Best Evidence, or Chris Carter’s Science and the Afterlife Experience. 

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What’s a “Ghost”?

“Ghost” is a vague term.  I think it’s useful to differentiate “ghosts” from After-Death Communications or ADCs.  When you look at the literature, especially the older stuff, you’ll see that what are called “ghosts” are often better understood as ADCs. 

Here are the key differences between ghosts and ADCs:

I think these are two different phenomena, and should be treated differently. I’ve discussed ADCs in a different series of articles:

Visual ADCs with Corroborating Evidence

But here I’ll just be talking about ghosts, as described above — appearances witnessed by strangers, sometimes years after the death, often disturbing, and sometimes with a background of tragedy.

Once I removed ADCs, there were 51 animal ghost stories in the literature I surveyed.  I’m sure there are more out there, both on the internet and in other sources.  In particular, I’m aware of very large collections of human ghost reports (e.g., the SPR catalog of nearly a thousand investigated cases), but I did not want to read a thousand human stories to find the occasional animal cases, although I’m sure they are there. So 51 is an under-estimate, I’m sure, but it will do. It will give you a sense of what’s out there. 

Most of the accounts involving someone seeing a ghostly image of an animal, usually a dog or cat unknown to them. Horses also make a frequent appearance. Many of the accounts are single occurrences witnessed by one person, but a fair number of them involve multiple sightings or multiple witnesses.

I’ll share a few of the more interesting, evidential cases.

We’ll start with Elliot O’Donnell’s Animal Ghosts, first published in 1912.  It contains 35 cases involving ghost sightings of animals.  As far as I know, it’s the best source of ghost sightings specifically of animals.  The animals include plenty of cats, dogs, and horses, but other animals as well – cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, rabbits, a tiger, and a bird. 

Here’s a good one. 

The Case of the Headless Cat

A lawyer in Manchester reported this.  I’ll relate it at some length, because it’s a good yarn and has multiple and credible witnesses, lending it some evidential value. 

The attorney and his wife had just moved into a new house.  The attorney described himself as “stodgy and unimaginative” and his wife as “the most practical and matter-of-fact woman you would meet in a day’s march.” 

Shortly after moving in, he and his brother-in-law saw “a large, red, and lurid eye” near the fireplace, which had gone out. It “stared at us with an expression of the utmost hate.”  They poked at the eye to no avail.  Eventually, it faded away.

The following day, his wife woke him up, directing his attention to a series of loud screeches, growls and snarls coming from the landing.  He searched that area but found no sign of any animal.  All the doors and windows were closed and locked.  They had no pets themselves. 

The next night, he was climbing the stairs and felt a “rush of icy cold air” go past him.  He looked down and saw “two big red eyes” staring at him from below the bannister.

A couple of weeks later, their children came running into their room, screaming that a dog had a cat in the spare room and was “tearing it to pieces.”  When they approached the room, they could hear “the most appalling pandemonium of screeches and snarls” from behind the door, “as if some dog had got hold of a cat by the neck and was shaking it to death.”  They quickly opened the door.  The sounds abruptly stopped.  The room was empty.   

A week later, their cook resigned.  She said she had been disturbed by “screeches outside my door, which sound like a cat, but which I know can’t be a cat, as there is no cat in the house.”  Then, she said, “Something heavy sprang right on top of me and gave a loud growl in my ear.  That finished me mum. … I wouldn’t go through what I suffered again for fifty pounds.  I’ve got palpitations even now.  I would rather go without my month’s wages than sleep in that room another night.” 

A week after that, the attorney returned to find his wife in a panic.  She said she had heard “a very pathetic mew” coming from under the sofa.  She looked, but didn’t see any cat there.  She heard the mewing again and heard something crawl out from under the sofa, but she still couldn’t see anything.  

“Then something sprang upon me and dug its claws into my knees,” she said.  “I looked down, and to my horror and distress, perceived, standing on its hindlegs, pawing my clothes, a large tabby cat, without a head – the neck terminating in a mangled stump.” 

About a week later, the husband/attorney heard a loud noise in the hall, “as if a dog had pounced on a cat.  And the next moment, a large tabby, with the head hewn away as Delia had described, rushed up to me and tried to spring on my shoulders.” 

He persistently made inquiries about the property, until he finally discovered that, 12 years prior, there had been a married couple who lived there, who spoiled their son, Arthur, “even to the extent of encouraging him in acts of cruelty.”  To amuse him, the parents would buy Arthur rats for his dog to kill.  On one occasion, they got him a stray cat.  The dog mangled the cat badly, and then Arthur killed it. 

The attorney stated, “Here then is a very feasible explanation for the hauntings – the phenomenon seen was the phantasm of the poor, tortured cat.  For if human tragedies are re-enacted by ghosts, why not animal tragedies, too?  It is absurd to suppose man has the monopoly of soul or spirit.” 

I agree. The case has credible witnesses, with no apparent reason to fabricate and no previous history of believing in this sort of thing. There are at least six different witnesses — the attorney, his wife, his brother-in-law, the children, and the cook. There are also multiple sightings over a long period of time, as well as history discovered after the fact that could help account for it.

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Simpler Ghosts

That was a weird one. Here are some “normal,” standard cases — briefer and less involved.

Arthur Myers described this one in Communicating with Animals: 

The ghost of a yellow and white cat was seen by several people in a small, third-story bedroom in New Jersey. Many other people said they felt the cat’s fur. The house was owned by a woman who said she’d replaced the bed in the room four times, only to find that the ghost cat continued to make appearances on the new furniture. The house became fairly well known, attracting visitors and parapsychological investigators. Hundreds of people reported feeling warm spots where the cat had lain.

Kim Sheridan reports this account from a man in Ontario, who said the experience convinced him that animals have an afterlife:

I was on my way home.  I was walking down a road where there were no streetlights, when I saw this big white dog come across the road.  It was jumping as it moved in slow motion and just went right through the fence on the other side, and on up through the field.  I watched as it ran, still in slow motion, until I lost sight of it.  So yes, I believe they have spirits like we do.

Kim Sheridan, Animals and the Afterlife

This third example is from Scott Smith, who reports seven ghost animal accounts in his book, The Soul of Your Pet. This one involves a ghost dog seen by six different people at different times. Two of them saw the dog disappearing through a solid door.  All of the appearances occurred at the same house, but the dog was a stranger to everyone there. One woman noted that that when she saw the dog, “I remember an alteration of my surroundings, with everything having a slightly hazy iridescence.” 

All six of the witnesses agreed on the dog’s appearance, which I think lends credibility to the report. They said it was two feet high, with black body, tan eyebrows and paws, short ears, a curly tail, and large, dark eyes.  So six different witnesses, all giving the same description of a dog repeatedly appearing in a house with no dog, sometimes vanishing through walls.  

Bill Shul reports four ghost cases.  Here is one example. 

A woman was visiting her friend.  While riding in a cart, they stopped near the ruins of an old abbey.  As they approached the abbey gates, they saw perched on top of a hedge post a large, magnificent white cat. 

They approached the cat, but suddenly it leaped into the air and disappeared.  The women were bewildered, for the grass was cut too short to conceal the cat, and it was nowhere to be seen. 

Two evenings later, the drove down the same path and once again saw the white cat sitting regally on her post.  The cat observed their approach with a friendly demeanor, but as they drew close, the animal slowly faded away. 

When they got back to town, the women mentioned the disappearing cat to a waitress, who gave them “a knowing smile.”  The woman at the next table asked if it had been a large white cat.  They confirmed it was.  The woman remarked, “Good gracious sakes!  You drove by the right time to see Congleton’s ghost cat!” 

The cat had belonged to a housekeeper at the abbey 40 years ago.  She took good care of the cat, but the cat disappeared one day.  She assumed a dog had killed her.  However, one night, she heard meowing at the door.  She opened the door and saw the cat sitting there.  Despite repeatedly coaxing the cat to come inside, the cat refused and just sat there.  Then she vanished before her eyes. 

The same thing happened night after night.  Eventually, the woman moved, telling her friends that she “liked live cats but didn’t enjoy being visited by a dead one.”

Jeremiah and His Two Poodles

We’ll round things off with one more strange tale from Elliott O’Donnell’s collection.  Mr. O’Donnell takes four or five pages to tell the story, but I’ll try to condense it.  

A man was riding in a carriage when something startled the horse. The horse “reared and took a violent plunge forward, setting off at a wild gallop.”  Looking beside them, the man saw a figure keeping pace with the carriage, “although apparently not moving at more than ordinary walking pace – a man of medium height, dressed in a panama hat and albert coat.  He had a thin, aquiline nose, a rather pronounced chin, was clean-shaven, and had startlingly white complexion.  By the side of him trotted two poodles.” 

He said no man, even running at full speed, could have kept up with the carriage.  The carriage driver had seen the same figure several times as well, on the same road.  

A month later, his 12 year old daughter became panicked after seeing “a stranger with horribly white face and big glassy eyes,” accompanied by two poodles, near their house.  

A week later, their servant quit, saying she had seen a “horrid white thing with a drooping mouth and wide-open, glassy eyes.  And by its side, standing on their hind legs, were two dogs, both poodles – also no living things, but dead, horribly dead.”

His concerns arose, the man asked around town.  A banker informed him that, years ago, there was a man named Jeremiah Dance. Jeremiah arrived as a stranger in town, and he was only ever seen in the company of one person, his landlord, Mr. Baldwin.  The two men walked about the town arm-in-arm, called each other pet names, and were seldom apart. 

That continued for three years, and then one day, Jeremiah abruptly disappeared and was never heard from again.  A boy said he overheard a loud argument between them just prior to Jeremiah’s disappearance, but Mr. Baldwin “pooh-poohed” that story, insisting that he had been far away at the time and knew nothing about Jeremiah’s disappearance or whereabouts. 

Within a few weeks, townsfolk began seeing Jeremiah’s ghost on the road, the same road the original reporter had seen him on. The banker had seen the figure as well, as had “crowds” of other people.  The banker confirmed that Jeremiah’s ghost was accompanied by two poodles. 

The man sees the figure and the two poodles again, while on another carriage ride. “On and on we dashed, until trees, road, sky, universe were obliterated in one blinding whirlwind …. the figures by my side, still there, stalking along as quietly and leisurely as if the horse had been going at a snail’s pace.” 

The next day, he, his wife, and his child all see the figure: “standing erect and staring at us, the spare figure of a man, with ghastly white face and dull, lifeless eyes, clad in a panama hat, albert coat, and small, patent-leather boots; beside him were two abnormally glossy poodles.” 

The parents are speechless, but the daughter asks the figure “Who are you? What is your name?” The figure made no reply but pointed to a nearby oak tree. He then vanished. 

When the man examined the tree, he found that it was hollow.  Inside, he discovered three skeletons — one human and two dogs. A story in the local paper confirmed that the human remains were those of Jeremiah Dance. From the abrasions on the skull, it was clear he met with a violent end. In an interesting twist, it turned out that he was a she; Jeremiah was actually a woman.  

A second newspaper story documented that Mr. Baldwin committed suicide by hanging himself.  In his suicide note, Mr. Baldwin confessed to the murder of Jeremiah.  He said: “She was my wife.  I loved her.  She took to drink.  I parted from her.  She became a dog worshipper.  I killed her and her dogs.” 

So we have a report with multiple witnesses — the man, his wife, the carriage driver, the banker, his child, “crowds” of others. There are multiple accounts of the same image (person and poodles) over an extended period of time. And there is a documented backstory, along with a murder confession, that fits the appearances. Pretty interesting.

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Well, there you go. That does it for our quick tour of animal ghosties. If you want to read more about phatasmagorical critters, check out Elliot O’Donnell’s book, Ghost Animals, or the other sources I mentioned.

In terms of evidence for animal afterlife, I’ll just point out a few things:

1. A fair number of these reports have multiple witnesses, multiple occurrences over an extended period of time, with additional corroborating evidence. 
2. These reports go back centuries. As noted earlier, ghosts have been reported in every society on earth, since the beginning of time.
3. Remember the white crow principle: in order to have evidence of animal afterlife, we don’t need all the stories to be true. We don’t even need most of them to be true. We need just one of them to be true. What are the odds that every single ghost report is either a hoax or the result of overwrought imagination? Slim to none, and Slim just left the building.
4. It’s important to consider the whole panoply of evidence, not just one particular area. Ghost reports are one area of evidence, but there are many others — NDEs, DBVs, ADCs, etc. (see menu). Don’t just look at ghost stories in isolation, but as part of an overall pattern. It’s all pointing in the same direction.

Happy hauntings.