Do your cats believe in ghosts?

Some people say that cats (and other animals, as well) can sense the presence of ghosts, and even interact with them. Do you think this is a real possibility, or do you think it's just a playful explanation for the fact that cats frequently respond to things we can't see or hear?

Have you ever felt your cats were in communication with a ghost? Have you ever encountered a spirit yourself, and if so, did your cats seem to be aware of it?

I'm not asking because of Halloween -- someone in one of the threads jokingly suggested ghosts as an explanation for a cat's behavior, and I started wondering what everyone thinks about that. Eager to hear your ideas!

Some people say cats can detect ghosts moving through the walls and floors. I've heard stories of cats that stare at walls and floors for hours, looking and listening intently as if there is really something there.

Of course, it may just mean you have mice!

Well, their senses are sharper than ours so who knows what they are really hearing or smelling.
About ghosts, I am not sure. I've been to a confirmed haunted house and there were lots of cats about. They were behaving pretty normal. Maybe the ghosts were formerly cat people?

we sometimes joke that Sleeves 'see's dead people' as he seems to stare at things that are not there and just the way he behaves sometimes...
I didnt know that it was talked about that cats actually do see ghosts.. maybe ill sleep with the light on tonight

If I believed in ghosts, like my mother who, scary as it may seem, has had many dream visits from people we know who have died without her knowing it (I can testify the dreams were real, because she told me about them before she got the "he's dead" call, but I think they're just freak coincidences) I would be certain cats can see them. But I don't believe in ghosts, so perhaps they just hear something we don't.

We have a cat ghost....seriously. She/He jumps on our bed at night at least once a week and walks around. My wife and I both feel it when she/he is there.
We have no living cats sharing our bed, so when this first happened, we thought one of the bengals had sneaked in. Feel around on the bed in the dark...no cat. Turn on the lights to find him....no cat. Go out into the living room to do a head count....all present and accounted for.

The ghost cat doesn't bother us at all, when I feel her/him padding around on the bed, I just tell him to lie down and go to sleep.

I think that my cats have an imaginary cat friend. Jangles will each act like he's playing with another cat while his sister is off somewhere sleeping. So, we've named him Teddy. Come to think of it Teddy is one of the best cats - he never breaks anything, doesn't eat or use the litter box. But he does keep my little boy entertained. haha

My cats have a firm belief in "ghosts" or as I call them squirls that got into the attic. They also both stare off into oblivion for hours... i think they are watching little pieces of dust floating around... but who knows it could be from the beyond.
Cat's seem to see things that we wouldn't even give a second thought to... come to think of it my cat has been going into my closet and yelling at the back wall maybe there is somthing or someone there?

I have no doubt of this after an incident about 8 years ago involving my himalayan mix, at the time I was a freshman in high school. Its a long story but I'll try to keep it consice.

We lived in an old victorian home converted apartment in NH. Clover stopped going into my bedroom for quite some time after appearing to be startled by something everytime he entered. I was reading in bed when he came in adn began stalking something. I thought he was playing with a bug so I got down there with him. There was nothing there. I moved some objects he was looking at but his gaze didn't falter. Huh. Ok this might have been mean but I had to be sure... I decided to slightly toss him in teh direction of what he was staring at, he launched himself across the room and flew out of my bedroom. Holy crap! I was out of there with my pillow and blankets too to go sleep in the living room with my mom.

The following morning around 6am our tv turned on. I was really annoyed at my mom for getting up that early when I was still trying to sleep. Then the tv turned off and on again adn off. After a few times of this I was even more annoyed at my mom for not being able to make up her mind. Then my mom said "Natalie, I think we have a problem," at which I replied "you mean you aren't doing that?!" We found the remote and put it where we could see it and the flickering continued. My mom got up to unplug the tv and as she got closer it was going on adn off more and more and more so that instead of the news it was just a fuzz screen. She pulled the plug and that was the end of it.

We never saw our ghost again. Clover and I both learned that my bedroom was safe and returned there over time. My mom and I will never forget what happened.

Both my parents' home, where I used to live as a child, and the residence where I lived in my first year of university, seemed to have a "ghost cat." Like Kai Bengals, I often had the experience of feeling a cat jump onto my bed (usually down by my feet) when there wasn't anything there, or I would hear gentle footsteps in the hallway when I was alone in the house and knew for a fact that my parents' cat was sleeping in another room. Now, I didn't start noticing this at my parents' house until we had a living cat of our own, so there's this part of me that thinks maybe I'm just used to the sensation of cats leaping up onto my bed or the sound of them walking about in the house, and so I imagine it when they're not actually there?

However ... my cat Spike has developed a keen interest in meowing at a certain spot in our living room. He will leap up onto the arm of the loveseat and stare at the top-most hinge of a closet door. After a few seconds of intense staring, he'll start to meow; usually, it will be his anxious-alert meow (which can mean anything from "I want crunchies now!" to "I'm lonely!" to "Uh-oh, Mom has a migraine!"), and he'll keep it up for a good long time if you don't shoo him away. (And because it's kind of weird and funny, we usually don't try to stop him.) We've lived in this apartment since the beginning of July, and when we mentioned Spike's "invisible friend" to a friend of ours who also used to live in this apartment with her three cats, she got a kind of bemused expression on her face. It turns out that one of her cats also had a habit of staring at the top-most hinge of the living room closet, and would eventually start yowling at it. (Now, her cat also caught a mouse inside that closet, so that might explain why he was yowling at the closet door--but not why Spike would be doing it, too. The two cats have never met.)

Then, early this morning (like, around 2am or so), I woke up to go to the bathroom. Both cats were sleeping on top of me, and Spike got up to follow me. But once we got to the bedroom door, he wouldn't leave the room. He sat on the carpet and stared at me, with this extremely worried expression on his furry little face, as if he was afraid I wouldn't come back or that there was something in the hallway that posed a threat to both of us. I went to the bathroom, sans cats (Oz didn't even deign to get up off the bed, but this was laziness, not fear of the unknown!), and when I came back, Spike was still sitting in the doorway of our bedroom. He followed me back to bed, but stayed alert for quite some time afterwards. Very strange indeed!

Originally Posted by Mirinae

(Now, her cat also caught a mouse inside that closet, so that might explain why he was yowling at the closet door--but not why Spike would be doing it, too. The two cats have never met.)

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Hehe maybe you have a mouse ghost. The cats would looove that!

Another thing I love about cats, particularly in old houses: Oftentimes you can blame the strange sound you heard on the cat! Its really eery to be in a house with no cats because then you are constantly thinking "What was that?!"

In college I had a roommate with 2 cats. One would always get up on the dining table and cackle (ka-ka-ka) towards the ceiling lamp.
She thought that the cat was going after a ghost. I at first thought that it was just going after floating dust from the light.

Then one night I was woken to a cat walking on my bed. At the time I use to keep my door shut cause her cats would sleep on my face. So I immediately thought one opened the door -cause they knew how to do that- and snuck in. When I turned on my light no PHYSICAL cat was present.

I've never had a cat who went after 'ghosts'. There are times when it takes me a second or two to figure out what they're trying to pounce on, or what they're hearing, but no ghosts.

I do sometimes lose track of which cat is where at night, so I'll carefully move around the area where I think a cat is napping. That's just them having me well trained, though, not ghost cats.

My cat Jacey was given to the RSPCA where I worked, he used to live with an elderly guy who died. Five years on and hes still alittle scatty at times. A friend of mine who does animal healthcare saw him and asked if we ever sensed an old guy in our house? I often feel people around but assume that its family etc. She said it was the cats owner who could not move on as he and Jacey were very close. A few days later I felt there was someone in my kitchen, as I turned around Jacey was looking up as though he was looking straight up at someone........I asked the guy to go and said that Jacey was very loved and safe with us. Since then he has been so much more settled (he now knows who his owner is). So yes, I do think that cats can see things.
Jo & Jacey
xx

When I was young we had a cat that would act "weird". We had grandfather clock at the top of our stairs. At midnight the clock would chime and everynight at exactly midnight our cat would be sitting at the bottom of our stairs looking up the stairs and he would make a weird moww....over and over again for like one min. ....it was weird.

I have no doubt in my mind that ghosts exist, and that animals are more in tuned to the supernatural than humans.

My best friend, when we were kids, we used to always spend the night at each others' houses, and her house had a black cat that was not really there - we'd see him running through the house and disappear into a corner. You may think I am wierd, but I know what I saw, and she did too.

My dogs and my cats make me very aware when there is a presence around, I have seen it happen more times to mention. I know that if one of my animals is scared to go somewhere in particular, that is good enough reason for me! I also know that if one of my animals does not like someone, that says enough for me too.

What fascinating stories! I'm so glad I asked the question.

My own "ghost stories" don't involve cats, so they're not relevant... but I, too, have had some fairly compelling experiences, and I agree that there are levels of existence we don't entirely comprehend...

hmm, my mother's house (I firmly believe is haunted by at least one "ghost") No indoor animal there has ever acted quite "right"

I think it just might be my family but I have another story of a ghost encounter. At one time we had 2 cats: shunnarah, a fat fluffy kitty, and tigger, a fat maine coon cat....shunnarah and tigger grew up together but shunnarah was a lot older than tigger. When she passed away Tigger started acting weird. He would go up to the food dishes and make all these weird growling and meowing sounds. See shunnarah would always be up by the food dishes and if she wasnt eating she would be laying by them. Also my mom kept food dishes in her room so if they slept with her at night they would have food right there. Well after shunnarah had died my mom was sleeping and it sounded like a cat eating out of the food dish..like a crunching sound...well she just thought it was my other cat tigger, but when she leaned up tigger was laying right next to her in the bed and she still heard the sounds when she looked over to the dish....

***but to let you know i have had these kind of things happen my whole life...so i think its just my family....lol***