Can Pets See Ghosts?
Can our pets see spooky things that we can't?
Many pet owners have experienced being in a room with an animal spookily staring into space as if there’s something there we can’t see. Are pets able to see ghosts?
Paranormal Pet Stories
Stories of pets that can see ghosts.
Thousands of people online have stories to tell about their pets having seemingly supernatural abilities. Here is a small selection we discovered.
Reddit user VCinOhio wrote about their experience with their pet dog Lucky in a cemetery.
“I used to take photos of grave markers for out-of-state family for a genealogical website. I would often take my previous dog, Lucky dog, with me as company.
On one trip to a really old part of a cemetery, I could not find the markers from a previous cemetery transcription. I reached out in my thoughts and asked the people who's markers I was looking for help to find them.
After I made the request, I had a feeling to go up on the top a small hill. They are at the top of the hill. As this thought popped into my head, the hair on Lucky's back went up and he seemed to be looking at something on the road to the top of the hill.
Yep all 6 of the graves were there.”
Another reddit user called pinkisacoloryes wrote of their little dog waking them up several times during the night and leading them to an empty room. Once they reached the room the dog would howl and growl which was very out of character. Sometimes the lights would also flicker on and off on their own in the same room but no where else in the house.
You can find hundreds more stories like these all over the internet. It has even become a common trope in horror movies that cats or dogs are the first to notice when something spooky is about to happen.
Theories about Pets and Ghosts
Some animals’ special sensory abilities are able to be explained by science. Cats and dogs have eyesight, hearing and smell that is far more highly tuned for sensing prey and unexpected activity than ours is.
According to the American Kennel Club dogs in particular have a sense of intuition that is very powerful. Dogs are somehow able to sense when their owner is about to come home even if they show up unexpectedly.
Dogs are also able to predict disasters such as large storms and earthquakes before they happen. This is probably due to their superior sense of hearing and smell giving them clues that we are not able to notice.
Cats and dogs also have far better night vision than us. It could be that they are able to see things moving in the night time such as bugs or other pests that we simply can’t see because of our limited vision.
It is also possible that animal’s superior senses give them an ability to see things in realms that we can’t. Spirits are generally believed to exist in a form we can’t usually see but can experience in other ways.
Perhaps animals’ senses are finely tuned enough that they are able to see a whole world of spirits that isn’t visible to us most of the time. Unfortunately we can never really know for sure what our pets are experiencing.
Do you have any stories about pets behaving strangely? Let us know in the comments!
If you enjoyed this article you may also be interested in Oscar the rest home cat or our ability to detect when someone is looking at us.
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In the early 1900s, the MacKenzie family line in Scotland experienced several different paranormal omens, warning them about deaths that would soon occur in the family.
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In 1971, strange stains in the shape of human faces started appearing on the kitchen floor of a house in Bélmez de La Moraleda, a little village in Andalusia, Spain.
The Stikini is a humanoid owl that can supernaturally transform from a seemingly ordinary human into the form of an owl.
Black Annis is a blue faced witch from English folklore that is said to have a taste for human flesh and a penchant for wearing the tanned hides of children around her waist.
The Alp of German folklore is a nefarious entity that haunts the nightmares and drains the life force of its unsuspecting victims.
A Victorian-era house stands proudly at 65 Mulberry Street in Quitman, Arkansas. It was built in 1891 and is reportedly haunted by numerous spirits including a WWI soldier, an old man, and a particularly terrifying entity known as the "Dog Boy”.
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In the late 16th century, a Newgate Prison inmate in London wrote a terrifying account of a ghostly Black Dog hunting prisoners. Today, reports continue to circulate about this Black Dog haunting the area around the prison.
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La Sayona is a vengeful ghost on the Venezuelan plains, known to seek out and punish unfaithful men who do not escape her wrath.
In 1996, Ukrainian artist Svetlana Telets created a strange painting of a woman in the rain. She has sold it several times, each time it was returned due to the unsettling paranormal activity it brought with it.
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Hannah Cranna was a woman accused of being a witch in Connecticut in the 1800s. Legend has it that she had the ability to curse those who wronged her. Some say she even haunts the area to this day.
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La Carreta Chillona is a ghostly unmanned wagon that drives through the streets at night, collecting the soul of anyone who lays eyes upon it.
The Sallie House in Atchison, Kansas has a dark history of death and sorrow. Many claim to have experienced paranormal activity while in the house including receiving unexplained injuries and having objects melt for no reason.
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