Ghost Cat attack?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Friday morning, Mouse_Spouse and I took Jake to the vet for the last time. He has been sick for a while now, and I found making an euthanasia appointment very difficult. Finally, I decided to stop being selfish and let Jake move on, he had been my companion for over ten years.

IMHO, Jake was the greatest cat in the world. He let me hold him when I was feeling down. He was a very loving foster father to many orphaned kittens. (If anyone in the Denver-metro area has a cat that can open cabinets and tugs on your leg for attention, he may have learned those tricks from Jake. Sorry.) Spouse and I are both very sad about his passing.

Our other cats, Astrix and Elwood have been reacting to Jake’s illness and the extra stress in the house. They seem a little confused. Their buddy is gone and they’re not sure what to think of it. (I did not bring Jake’s remains back. Death is a difficult thing to face. For me, rigor mortis is even harder. It’s a strange state that reminds me that without life - however you define it - a body is just a mass of protein, a fragile shell.) I was prepared for a couple of weeks of strange feline behavior.

I was not prepared for this:

On Sunday mornings, Mouse_Spouse likes to make pancakes, so our kitchen table had more stuff on it than usual. I think that trying to keep cats off of counters and tables is a Sisyphean task, so the House Rule is that cats are not supposed to be on surfaces while humans are using them – this is enforced by the kitchen squirt gun. (Every one has one of these, right?)

While Spouse and I were eating, Astrix jumped onto the table. As he sauntered between our plates and other breakfast accoutrements, I reached for the water pistol on the kitchen counter. Suddenly, there was a huge crash! Astrix took off out of the room like an orange comet. Cutlery and a plate were on the floor. My orange juice was making a desperate run from its glass to the floor and the pancake syrup was make good its escape from Mrs. Butterworth’s interior.

“What the **hell ** was that!”

“I don’t know,” Mouse_Spouse replied. He was just as bewildered as I.

There is no way to know why Astrix ran off like he did. I like to think that a Ghost-Jake smacked his ass for getting on the table. :smiley:

2

May your memories (and your ghost cat) bring you peace.

3

Thank you. Its been a rough few days. Why do cat and kitten pictures seem to be everywhere right now?

4

Jake sounds very much like our Rocco, who took our newly rescued-from-the-alley tiny kitten Devo under his wing when our two younger cats were still growling mutered threats at him. Now everybody gets along fine, but during those first few weeks Rocco would take Devo to the food dish and let Devo suck his forepaw for…comfort, I guess? He also taught Devo how to wake us up for food or attention in the night.

5

I’ve had no ghost visits from Trouble (thank goodness!), but I definitely sympathize with your loss.

6

Obake Neko :eek:

7

noticed that, did you? i feel for you mouse_maven. when my dear murphy recently departed this world, every other visual i encountered had exactly the same subject matter in it. :frowning:

i haven’t had a visit from the old boy (yet), but several years ago, miss peggy walked across my bed. never mind the fact that she’d been gone for almost six months at the time.

i thought it was one of the dive master’s kitties coming to sleep with me. when i looked up to pet my visitor, there was nothing there. nothing in the room or under the bed. i imagine murphy will come to say good bye sometime soon as well.

8

Yep. Bye Jake. Good kitty.

Astrix and Elwood look pensive, like they’re missing their catbud.

9

RIP Jake - I feel your loss.

And, yes that was a ghost that scared Astrix. Our Marty has lost three of his best friends (Ernie, Dino and Ratso) and from time to time, he acts like he sees things, and reacts to cats that aren’t in the room.

Next time, talk to Jake, he misses you too.

10

We only had Tiger for a short time, but he was an awesome cat who fit into our lives seamlessly.
Not long after he died from a fast moving reoccuring bladder, I was taking a nap and I swear on all that I hold holy, that Tiger plonked down atop my head on my pillow like he always did at night and treasured nap times. It was a weighted warmth and for that moment in between sleep and awake, I tried to reach up and pet him to only find my pillow.

We didn’t have any other cats and my 88# lab, Murph, definately never slept as a my hat.

My condolences on Jake. ( We just put down our beloved Murphy after a fantastic 12 year time with her. )

I need to gets myself a Kitchen Squirt Gun.

11

Thanks every one. Its been very sad with Jake around.

We use the smaller, hand held version of this. Motorized squirt guns are great because you don’t have to pump them up, just ZOT! the little buggers.

12

Oh! Ghost kitty story! My newest neighbors also had a cat named Trouble, who was very old and a total member of the family, just like my Trouble. Her Trouble was a beautiful long-haired black kitty, they tell me, unlike my Trouble, who was a brown tabby. Any-hoo.

They were building their new house when Trouble got sick. They hadn’t moved yet, but the house was almost done, and they had even put a kitty door in the patio door so Trouble could go out and lay in the screened patio and chase lizards if he felt like it. Anyway, Trouble died before they moved into the new house. So sad.

They debated getting a new kitty, but felt like it was too soon, and too much still going on, so they didn’t get a new kitty right away. About a month or so after they moved in, catless all the while, neighbor-lady was awakened by the sensation of a cat jumping up on the bed! She interpreted that to be Trouble letting her know it was okay to go get another kitty. So she went to the shelter that very day, and brought home the sweetest long-haired gray cat, whose name, IIRC, is Sophie, or something similar. Anyway, that cat is so smart, and so friendly and loving–she loves the grandkids, and her favorite game, which she’ll play until she’s exhausted, is fetch.

So whether Trouble-cat-ghost actually visited or not, they definitely went to the shelter on the right day.

13

My condolences on the loss of Jake…sweet looking kitty. But he’s sill “around.” It gives you time to say goodbye.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of when I had to put my alpha cat Pippin (pics in other threads) to sleep, but he lives on in his adopted nephews Marbles and Moonpie.

When our cat Maya had to be put down, I was at work…but the very moment she passed, I felt her rubbing against me leg.
so yes, I believe in ghost cats.

14

So sorry about your kitty!

I had a ghost cat experience once. A friend has a house that he believes is haunted. A couple of years ago, my partner and I stayed over one night (because our sewer was being worked on). At that point I had never heard his ghost stories and had no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary. The next morning the friend and my partner got up and went to work. Since I was “working from home” that day, I slept in a bit.

Laying in the bed, I had a distinct sensation that a cat was walking up the side of it, toward my head. At first I forgot where I was, and thought it was my cat. But quickly realized that there was no cat there! Weird, I thought.

A half hour later, I was getting out of the shower. Since I thought I was alone in the house, I just walked naked from the bathroom to the guest bedroom. Right after entering the bedroom, I heard what sounded like an annoyed sigh from behind me in the hall – and almost freaked out, because I thought there was someone in the house (and I was buck naked!). But after throwing on some clothes and hunting around the house, I realized there was no one there.

Turns out, earlier that morning, my partner had heard a knock on the bathroom door, but when she went to look no one was there and both our friend and I were still snoozing in bed.

Anyhow, I am pretty sure one was a cat ghost and the other might have been the woman who used to own the house – at least that is the theory of my friend, who has had multiple spooky experiences living there.

15

I am sorry about Jake, it’s never easy to lose a pet.