Animal Ghosts: My Dog Dusty

I have had many dogs throughout my life but none were in it longer than Dusty, our golden retriever. When she came into our lives, she was only eight weeks old, tiny and feisty. After having her a year, we decided that she needed a friend so we got Shadow from the humane society. Shadow was a four month old black lab/chow mix. Her and Dusty played together and even teased each other. They were buddies. Several months after Shadow turned 11 years, she was diagnosed with liver cancer. We were devastated and knew she had to be put down. My son and I moved her right inside the door, where she just laid down in pain. The vet injected her and within seconds, she was gone. I held her paw while Andy went outside to be with Dusty. At this time, we had two other dogs, Booger, our Chihuahua, and Molly, our American Cocker. We kept them in our bedroom while the vet removed Shadow’s body. The two younger dogs looked all over for Shadow, while Dusty just seemed to be depressed. We had built a storage/poker room for my husband who had installed an air conditioning unit and cooler for the room. Dusty spent most of her time there especially in the summer. In the wall of the room was a small dog door, a perfect size for Booger and Molly to run in and out through. Dusty managed to get through that door every time there was a thunderstorm. She was a 70 pound dog but didn’t let the size of the door bother her when she was scared and wanted to come inside. She did lift the flap many times in a day, peeking in to see if we were there. The poor thing was now 13 years old, had arthritis and cancer growths on her back, when we noticed her lying around panting hard and not eating. I tried to get her in my car to take her to the vet but if a 70 pound dog doesn’t want to get in your car, she won’t! I called a mobile vet on Friday for him to come to the house on Monday to see if she needed to be put down. Six months after Shadow died, my hubby found Dusty’s body in the storage room. She had died over night not waiting for the vet to diagnose her, leaving on her on accord. Shortly afterwards I kept hearing movement in the storage room and the dog door flat being opened. The other two dogs were in my bedroom so I found it to be a bit odd because I swear I heard the flap open, then shut. For many days and nights after Dusty’s death, I continued to hear noises and even felt her presence whenever I stepped outside. The strangest thing I found was the newly killed pigeon shortly after her death. Dusty would constantly grab pigeons out of mid air, play with them, then kill them, and eventually ate them. I like to believe that the dead pigeon was a sign she was just fine and still with us. It’s been over two years and I still feel like she is out in our back yard playing and chasing pigeons.

There have been many reports of animal ghosts, most of which were dogs, cats, horses and birds. Accounts of animal spirits have been told for decades. These ghosts seem to hang out in places they lived for a long period of time. Some have reported not only seeing their deceased animal but hearing and feeling them too. The theory is that dog spirits watch over its previous owners maybe even offering protection. Cat spirits, however, have been thought of as a demonic presence or a sign that some major disaster is going to happen. Many animal spirits have been seen in historic places such as Gettysburg or the Whaley House. Spirit horses along with its ghost rider have been reported on the battlefields by many eyewitnesses. The Whaley House in San Diego appears to have a ghost dog that runs down the hallway into the dining room. These ghosts seem to be residual haunts, repeating the same thing over and over. There are many stories about ghost Animals, I have linked some of them for you along with websites that have animal ghosts photos.

http://www.ghostresearch.org/articles/animal.html

http://paranormal.about.com/library/bltales_animalghosts.htm

http://www.angelsghosts.com/animal_ghost_pictures.html

http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/animal.htm