I announced to a couple of friends a few weeks ago that I think I have a ghost cat in my apartment. I'm not sure what they thought about that, but I guess I don't really want to know. So it sounds a little whacky, but here's what's been happening.
About six months ago I switched my studio and bedroom and started sleeping in the front room. Shortly thereafter when I was sleeping, I began to have the sensation from time to time of a cat jumping up on the bed and walking around. Well I have two cats so I didn't think much of it, and usually I was half or all the way asleep when it happened so I kinda shrugged it off. In fact I usually didn't even remember it the next morning.
Well one time early in the morning I felt a little jump onto the bed. I reached down to give my cat a little pet but there was no cat there. uh? I reached over to turn on the light to see which cat it was and where they had gone so quickly. Both cats raised their sleepy heads and blinked at me from different parts of the room. One was curled up in my office chair and the other one on a pile of laundry in the corner. (yeah I know I need to get that put away).
OK, this is really weird. I guess I dreamed it, imagined it, maybe it was a um..... a ..... well I don't know, bizarre involuntary muscle twitch or an extremely localized tiny earthquake under my bed??? Either way I was sleepy and went back to bed. I forgot all about it the next morning. The same thing continued to happen every few weeks or so but would forget about it in the morning.
Sometime during these experiences my little girl cat became terrified of my bed. She loved to get on the bed and roll around under the covers and wrestle. It was her favorite game. One time we were playing and suddenly she jumped up, terrified, and ran off the bed. I thought she'd just gotten startled and tried to get her to come back but she wouldn't come near the bed. I finally got her and brought her back over and she cautiously sniffed around but was jumpy and still terrified.
Over the next few weeks she continued to be extremely jumpy and seemed terrified of the bed. I had been able to coax her back up, but she was always wary and nervous. She had always been a bit of a jumpy cat but it was much worse than before. I even considered that I might have to take her to the vet for some kind of anxiety medicine. I chalked it up to typical nervous cat behavior but it did seem strange.
Finally about a month after the freaked kitty incident, it was early one morning and I felt the familiar "jump" onto the bed. I knew it wasn't either of my cats because I'd put them out the night before and closed the door. (they were hyper and I was trying to sleep) Then it dawned on me, "I have a ghost cat!". I was sure of it. It made perfect sense. Well, a sleepy brain kind of sense. Still I didn't consciously remember my ghost kitty revelation until one time it happened early in the morning and then later that evening I was watching Ghost Hunters on TV. Boom! Like a sledge hammer, I suddenly remembered "Oh yeah, I have a ghost cat in my apartment".
I announced it to a friend who just happened to text me. Well he's probably used to getting strange messages from me, most of my friends are. But saying it, (texting it in this case) made it real. No more sleepy half awake notion, no this was a fully awake, conscious crazy notion. But seriously I don't know how else to explain it.
So I 'm writing this because I had another visit this morning. (and it's almost Halloween so these things are OK to say)
About 4:00AM, I was awakened by some shuffling around and turned on the light to see my cat Pete, nosing around my computer. That's a no-no because Pete has a bad habit of chewing electrical cords and other important cables. I got up and shoo'd him out of the room and closed the door. I turned off the light and snuggled up under the covers to sleep a few more hours. Then I felt it, a light, gentle little spring on the mattress about mid-way down near the edge. Then the sensation of little tiny movement, one...two....three....four..... walking by my legs. Hmmmmm I thought sleepily, "my ghost kitty has come for another visit".
A few hours later I awoke and turned on the light having forgotten about my little "visit". I shuffled toward the door in typical morning style. When I opened the it, there were my two cats snuggled up outside waiting for me to get up.
But I don't have two cats, I have three.
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