Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

Make of the following what you will, it is not a made up tale, it is how it is in my cottage. Shortly after moving into our cottage I was sitting in my chair reading, I looked up and caught a movement out the corner of my eye, I looked and saw what I thought was a shadowy grey cat disappearing out of the room. During that first winter and early spring I would see this little cat flitting about the house. It was by no means solid just a sort of sad grey glimmering shape, always on the move.


When the warmer weather arrived and we had our back door constantly open, I got to know the only cat in our vicinity, a wonderful tortoiseshell tom called Indie. He was a great character, obviously the king cat and he decided that our house was an extension of his house next door and would wander in and make himself at home. He once stayed in the middle of winter with us for eight days, just going out and back to his own home when he wanted a meal, though he was not adverse to begging food off us as well. During the time Indie was around I never saw the little grey cat but would often see Indie watching something along its pathway. Just over two years ago we got our own cat, Pixie, and Indie soon made friends with her. We went on holiday to Cornwall and the day before we came home, I was standing in the kitchen of the holiday home we had rented and saw the little grey cat run across the kitchen. I turned around to follow it with my eyes and saw Indie standing by the kitchen counter, as solid as if he was there. The next day homeward bound, we had got as far as Kings Cross Station, London, when my phone rang. It was my daughter who was house sitting for us. She rang to prepare us for the fact that Indie had been runover the day before and was struggling for his life at the vets, where his owner had taken him. Unfortunately he didn't survive.


Indie started to appear around our house, sometimes just quickly sometimes more leisurely, I would see him in the alleyway sniffing his favourite herb plants, as Pixie grew they looked very similar, but it was not Pixie I was seeing it was Indie. One day I saw a cat I thought was Pixie going out the back door when I was on my way to the living room, in the living room there was Pixie curled up on her favourite cushion fast asleep

Our next ghost cat is even more curious. A year ago a family moved in on the other side of our cottage with many cats, the oldest of which was a large black tom, Merlin, in character he was a bit of an Indie, knew what he wanted and went for it. Sometimes Pixie and him were friends sometimes Pixie would have a quick spat with him. Then one day I had been stroking Merlin on the back wall and returned to my kitchen to see another large black cat walking into my dining room. I knew it was another ghost cat, I can't explain how I am certain these are cats not of our reality, because although they do often appear solid there is just something about them and their movement. The black ghost cat now became part of our lives.


My mother was scornful about these ghosts cats, until one day she was visiting and we were sitting talking and she suddenly looked at me and said that a black cat had walked across the room, and no, it was not Merlin. I got used to seeing this black cat and one day my neighbour told me a strange story. Apparently, Merlin had a brother Arthur who was identical to him, when they both became adult cats, unfortunately, Arthur died, they were so identical that she was never sure whether it was Merlin or Arthur that had died, so the remaining black one she called Merlin.
My neighbours moved away, with reference to them you can find a very early blog story about them and how they abandoned their cats. The black ghost cat didnot go with them but still appears occasionally in our house.


Our latest ghost cat is our own darling Pixie, who was run over on midsummer's day, and died instantly at two years old. At first I did not see her but after a few days I began to hear the little bell on her collar tinkling as I went around the house. About a week after she died I was passing our open bedroom door on the way downstairs and I glanced inside as I often do and there was Pixie curled up on her favourite spot on our bed. Occasionally in the night I can feel her weight lying on my feet or when I am watching a dvd I feel the weight of her sitting on my knee, and put my hand out to stroke her before I remember.

Now I have told you the story of my three ghost cats, I see them in daylight or at night, sometimes they move quickly through my vision, sometimes they are just there, but if you turn and look away and back again they are gone. The little grey cat I have not seen for a long time, Pixie I see the least, the other two cats equally, Indie seems to turn up at times of events, changes or upheavel, either good or not so good, the black cat seems to wander quitely, but sometimes seems to rush around caught up in a happening. They are just there, I don't communicate with them I just seem to share my space with them.

















.