Ghost cats: human encounters with feline spirits

This is a great little book – if one likes cats, and I do of course.  I actually love all animals, but cats are at the top of my list so I may be a little biased in my appreciation of all things cats. 

 It’s also a great book if you enjoy short stories which I do.  What we have here is a compilation of short stories about cats or more precisely ghost cats and their appearances to loved ones left on this side of the Rainbow Bridge.

I don’t consider it a sad book or a book of sad stories and all the stories are uplifting accounts of how the kitties found them, interesting little idiosyncrasies of the cats in the stories and their housemates, and the different responses from their humans. There was also nothing scary about the visits from the cats. Most “pet parents” were happy to see their beloved cats one or more times.  There were a few stories about homes or buildings being “haunted” by cats from previous owners or residents and the people involved were at first frightened by the sounds and appearances but then things settled down.

Several stories had some cute and interesting tales about other animals in the house and how they reacted to the ghost kitty.  From those stories it seems that other animals may be more sensitive to ghosts than humans are and may actually interact with the ghost.

One story I particularly enjoyed was about Casper – all white with green eyes.  Although it is usually white cats with blue eyes who are often deaf little Casper was deaf.  He was trained to respond to hand signals.  He survived many difficulties including cancer when he was younger. Then at 16 years old he became very ill, and sadly, had to be euthanized.  Shortly after his passing “Casper took up his old nightly ritual of jumping on the bed and then off several times during the night”.  Kathy (his pet mom) believed it was Casper’s way of showing her he was OK.  According to the story the late-night visits continued for about a year.  I could almost see that little guy jumping on and off the bed just trying to get her attention to tell her “I’m ok, really!!!”

Another very interesting and entertaining section was Chapter 6 all about hotel cats.  Most of the cats had been feline in-house hospitality workers during their lifetimes, and after crossing the bridge came back to continue greeting guests and making night rounds (maybe). Many of the first sightings were reported by guests to the astonishment of the human staff.  Some ghost kitties didn’t stay long and others were seen for years.  Several hotels had only rumors of cat ghosts – no sightings, but those stories are included as well.

I think anyone who likes animals, especially cats, will enjoy this little book.  It is a fairly quick read, and if you must put it down it’s very easy to get back into it.

I have lost many cats over my lifetime.  Most were old or suffering from a serious illness.  Each loss was painful and each kitty remains in my heart.  I have never had a ghost kitty experience, but I would welcome a visit from a ghost of kitties past.  I think it would be comforting.

Other books by Dusty Rainbolt:

Human Encounters With Feline Spirits

Kittens for Dummies

All the Marbles

Cat Wrangling Made Easy

Ghost Cats and most of the others are available at Amazon and also in Kindle format.

Published in paperback by The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT Jan 2007, and July 2009

Reviewed by Linda Gavitt

ED’S NOTE:

Linda has written a couple of stories about her own cats which you can find in the CAT CHAT section.

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