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Ghost Cats


Catspit

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Throughout my teenage and adult life, I've seen cats that weren't physically there. It's infrequent, but over the years I've had a handful of events that I can't explain as optical illusions or fleeting glimpses of living cats, and I thought I'd share them.

The first experience I remember having was when I was in my mid-teens. I was in the kitchen, getting ready to open up some wet cat food for the four cats we had at the time. I felt something rub against my leg pretty solidly (I was wearing jeans and could feel the pressure all against the outer side of my calf) and in my peripheral vision I saw what I thought was our black cat - only when I looked down properly, nothing was there. I assumed it was Gecko (the living black cat) and he must have just zipped off without me realizing it, but that felt like a stretch, so I went looking for him. And there he was in the first place I looked, sleeping on the back porch, totally conked out. It couldn't have taken more than a minute to get there from the time I saw/felt the mystery cat. We had previously had a black cat named Mish who died a few years prior, and I figure it must've been him. If not, it was a cat I didn't know.

It was years before anything else happened. Then a friend of mine moved, and in her new place, there were several times when I saw just a split-second flash of a calico kitten - about six months old, mostly white with tabby markings in her pigmented fur (both the orange and the brown/black). My friend had no cats who looked anything like that, though she did have a couple, a gray tortie and a longhaired black cat. Her roommate had a giant fat tabby. Seeing a brief glimpse of a cat usually isn't enough to convince me that I'm seeing a ghost, but it was the same cat each time and she* had such distinct features.

* Because of the way the genes that determine color in cats work, torties and calicos always have two X chromosomes - meaning any "male" instances are actually XXY (or otherwise have something weird going on genetically, like mosaicism maybe).

For a more recent example, when my SO and I moved into our current place (where her sister also lives, since the house was willed to both of them), on two occasions I saw a tuxedo cat in places that literally didn't have the space for a cat to fit. This one had a white muzzle and a streak down the belly, a very round face with delicate features, and a short, small nose. After seeing her the first time, I described her to my sister-in-law, who said the description matched a cat she'd had that had died just before the first time I visited. I think this was case where moving in and disturbing things - and bringing in new cats - may have gotten the ghost's attention. She was looking in a window the first time (said window was partly blocked by a piece of furniture on the porch and there was only about an inch of space between it and the glass). I got a strong sense that she was warily checking out the new cats in "her space" just like a live cat would do. The second time I saw her she was in the house, in a space that was full of storage boxes. It was about six months since we'd moved in, and felt more like a goodbye visit in retrospect. I haven't seen her since. I guess she decided everything was okay... or she was just disgusted with my obnoxious younger cats, haha.

I've actually given this a lot of thought, because I know how easy it is to believe something just because you want to. But I do have live cats, and only one of these ghost cats could potentially be a cat I knew. I don't have any history of hallucinations, unless these are hallucinations, in which case they're very specific and extremely infrequent.

I'm not really looking for validation or criticism, just... sharing. I take ghost sightings with a whole shaker of salt, but that doesn't mean that none of them are real.

If anybody else wants to share similar experiences, I'd love to read 'em, too.

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Im a pita skeptic of unproven stuff like spookies or the paranormal, a lot of people believe in ghost cats/animals and i have my thoughts on why, i would be so delighted if it was true however there just isnt any evidence or proof of it,  sorry roz.

Ive had experences and before i get into mine i want to touch on a related phenomenon where people think an animal most times a cat is getting into bed, rubbing legs etc, most of these folks own or have owned a cat and most times have those experences when in bed hence tried, sleepy, etc, in those cases i believe its a mind trick some they felt a lot is being played back not unlike the phenomenon of phantom pain in a person missing a limb.

We have many cats and when my mind is drifting like doing chores and heres as good a place as any to enter i have mental issues of thr ptsd, nerves , panic drdp ocd etc type stuff.

So like the other night i was pretty tired cleaning upstairs and i always get a few cats who love to watch me sweep or mop etc,  i often see cats out the cornor of my eye but most times i couldnt give details and i write it off as one of my cats or just being tired, likely someone will say no, those are ghost kitties. Yeah, i believe if its not a living cat then it is some mind trick hallucination.

A few months ago buggyboo "roz" just took ill and died my wife was devastated he was her favorite she still isnt over it i miss him too and i would be so very delighted if that lil fellow came back to see her, me too.

People cope with grief different ways some believe that the departed return i believe they do but only in the mind of the person who sees them.

I wont criticize people who only accept ghost cats exist i just sadly do not share that belief, in this situation believers are far better off than i am.

 

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Welcome to UM, Catspit :)

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Welcome to the forum, I have never had any of your experiences. But, if I did a ghost Cat would be great to have around, Cats are my favorite animal.

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Welcome to the forum @Catspit.   I did feel a cat curled up beside me on the bed one night.  I felt it get up and jump down.  My two dogs were sleeping by the bed and would have loved a real cat to be there.   My cat had been dead for a decade by then.   Maybe it was a dream or maybe not.

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We used to see a big ole white cat in the bedrooms of our old house no one near owned such a cat and we certainly didn't but the odd thing was you'd only ever catch a glimpse of it and only upstairs never anywhere else 

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13 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

Maybe it was a dream or maybe not.

I dont believe in ghost cats but i also believe what i will call "phantom pet phenomenon" is more than just a dream, i dont mean paranormal either, its about the brain.

 

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On 3/23/2021 at 2:57 AM, the13bats said:

i often see cats out the cornor of my eye but most times i couldnt give details and i write it off as one of my cats or just being tired, likely someone will say no, those are ghost kitties. Yeah, i believe if its not a living cat then it is some mind trick hallucination.

A few months ago buggyboo "roz" just took ill and died my wife was devastated he was her favorite she still isnt over it i miss him too and i would be so very delighted if that lil fellow came back to see her, me too.

People cope with grief different ways some believe that the departed return i believe they do but only in the mind of the person who sees them.

I wont criticize people who only accept ghost cats exist i just sadly do not share that belief, in this situation believers are far better off than i am.

In most cases I agree with you, actually. Human brains are programmed to slot information into recognizable shapes and patterns, so it's very easy to see something out of the corner of your eye and have your brain translate it into a shape that means something to you. This is especially true when you're grieving or missing a person/pet and want to see them again - your brain will look for things that resemble them even a little bit. And that's very likely what a lot of purely visual "ghost" encounters are. I've had several dozen experiences like that with cats, but I don't count them as "ghost cats" because it's far more likely that my brain saw a shadow or a couple of objects from just the right angle and went "that's a cat."

I'm really only willing to entertain the possibility of a paranormal experience in cases where I see the same thing more than once, see it clearly enough to describe and have that description correlate with something (like a cat I never met), or if there's sound or sensation as well as the visual aspect. And I'm not saying that I know what I've seen were ghosts for sure, just that they're unusually specific experiences and are harder to dismiss than just seeing a cat-shaped shadow out of the corner of my eye.

Interestingly, I've never been "visited" by any of the cats I'd most like to see again.

And thank you, @ouija ouija @Manwon Lender @Desertrat56 !

I also just remembered, my significant other has seen the same "ghost" cat in our backyard a couple of times now. She says it looks like a cat she had when she lived in this house as a child, and that said cat may have been part bobcat, given his size. I've never seen him so I can't comment on how accurate any of that is.

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9 hours ago, Catspit said:

In most cases I agree with you, actually. Human brains are programmed to slot information into recognizable shapes and patterns, so it's very easy to see something out of the corner of your eye and have your brain translate it into a shape that means something to you. This is especially true when you're grieving or missing a person/pet and want to see them again - your brain will look for things that resemble them even a little bit. And that's very likely what a lot of purely visual "ghost" encounters are. I've had several dozen experiences like that with cats, but I don't count them as "ghost cats" because it's far more likely that my brain saw a shadow or a couple of objects from just the right angle and went "that's a cat."

I'm really only willing to entertain the possibility of a paranormal experience in cases where I see the same thing more than once, see it clearly enough to describe and have that description correlate with something (like a cat I never met), or if there's sound or sensation as well as the visual aspect. And I'm not saying that I know what I've seen were ghosts for sure, just that they're unusually specific experiences and are harder to dismiss than just seeing a cat-shaped shadow out of the corner of my eye.

Interestingly, I've never been "visited" by any of the cats I'd most like to see again.

And thank you, @ouija ouija @Manwon Lender @Desertrat56 !

I also just remembered, my significant other has seen the same "ghost" cat in our backyard a couple of times now. She says it looks like a cat she had when she lived in this house as a child, and that said cat may have been part bobcat, given his size. I've never seen him so I can't comment on how accurate any of that is.

Thanks for centering me out, it would seem some things i posted that i meant broader were taken thin,

I fully respect people who believe in ghost pets but i personally havent seen anything to give me the impression the phenomenon is anything outside the mind of the believer, while i get to a degree the difference between "corner of eye" experence and what you perceive as more possibly a case of "ghost pet" perceived  quality and quantity of the experence still doesnt for me make the leap to paranormal.

In that way of thinking i could claim any cat i see better than fleeting is a candidate for a ghost and as much as the cat lover in me gets a all happy joy joy at that possibility i have to remember we have countless stay/homeless cats in my area, and i have seen the same looking cat shoot across the street etc, that doesnt make the jump to "likely a ghost cat" just because ive never had him in for meow mix,

If i really wanted to get carried away we have two that live on the porch, they have been here for the over 4 years we have, they dart off if we try to apporach them so i could say yep, ghost cats.

My point is rhe belief in ghost pets is up to opinion and perception of the person, as i said if a person believes dead kitties come back and run around im all for that and respect their belief, i simply at point do not share that belief.

And ill say again your way is better than mine.

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I think domesticated animals like cats can exist for some time in their astral form before moving on to their group soul. Sources I respect say it is possible for the most advanced ones to individualize from their species' group soul.

I have heard enough ghost animal stories to be a strong believer.

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21 hours ago, papageorge1 said:

I think domesticated animals like cats can exist for some time in their astral form before moving on to their group soul. Sources I respect say it is possible for the most advanced ones to individualize from their species' group soul.

I have heard enough ghost animal stories to be a strong believer.

How i wish stories made it so.

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When I was a preteen living in a city like enviroment I would sometimes see cats under parked cars. Only a split second, and they were shadows with no definition. I figure I was just seeing a false fith tire of sorts?

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On 3/26/2021 at 6:46 AM, Davros of Skaro said:

When I was a preteen living in a city like enviroment I would sometimes see cats under parked cars. Only a split second, and they were shadows with no definition. I figure I was just seeing a false fith tire of sorts?

Cats move pretty quickly.  Could have been a live cat.

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