Stationed in the barren midst of the Mojave Desert, the Outcast Earth team is searching for the ghost of a horse [see MOJAVE MYSTERIES for more information]. Although the team has had spectral encounters throughout its tour of the South Pacific, they have not had a supernatural experience that they could attribute to a non-human source. Does this mean that animals do not have the ability to manifest themselves as ghosts? At the heart of this question is an ages-old debate over whether animals have souls, the inherent component that allows a sentient being to survive death. In his 1913 book ANIMAL GHOSTS OR, ANIMAL HAUNTINGS AND THE HEREAFTER, author Elliott O'Donnell also addressed this philosophical question as it related to horses:

“There is no saying of Christ that justifies one in supposing that man is the only being, whose existence extends beyond the grave.

Granted, however, merely for the sake of argument, that we have some ground for the denial of a future existence for animals, consider the injustice such a denial would involve. Take, for example, the case of the horse. Harming no one, and without thought of reward, it toils for man all its life, and when too old to work it is put to death without even the compensation of a well-earned rest. But if compensation be God's law – as I, for one, believe it to be – and also the raison d'etre [a basic, essential purpose; a reason to exist] of a hereafter, then surely the Creator, whose chief claim to our respect and veneration lies in the fact that He is just and merciful, will take good care that the horse –the gentle, patient, never-complaining horse – is well compensated – compensated in a golden hereafter.” (Preface)

The team's current investigation of an area known as Sossaman Acres has brought this debate to the forefront. If the haunting proves legitimate, then the team may also have the unique opportunity to document the ghost of an animal and show that non-human species do have souls.

This enewsletter offers several well-documented cases from all over the world about animal ghosts, including one that was offered up by OCE team member Polaris.

THE OXENBY CAT: Other animal specters seem to appear only in advance of a crisis. The European tales of black dogs, often known as “grims” or “shug dogs,” are an excellent example of this phenomenon. These phantom canines were said to guard churchyards and crossroads, but they would also appear in advance of a tragic death. The Oxenby Cat may have performed a similar function. This haunting was first recorded in O'Donnell's ANIMAL GHOSTS OR, ANIMAL HAUNTINGS AND THE HEREAFTER. The haunting is said to take place in a gloomy manor house built during the reign King Edward VI (1537-1553), pictured right. Edward himself was a tragic figure. He obtained the throne at age nine after the death of his father, King Henry VIII. Due to his young age, Edward was closely controlled and manipulated by his regents. The boy was also very sickly and died at age fifteen, either due to disease or malicious poisoning. Although the exact location of this house could not be determined, and some sources indicate that it was destroyed during the last century, its appearance seemed to reflect the tragic nature of the young king who built it.

“...it had a majestic though very gloomy appearance,” noted a former resident, “and seen from afar resembled nothing so much as a huge and grotesquely decorated sarcophagus. In the centre of its frowning and menacing front was the device of a cat, constructed out of black shingles, and having white shingles for the eyes; the effect being curiously realistic, especially on moonlight nights, when anything more lifelike and sinister could scarcely have been conceived.” (Elliott, Chapter 1)

The cat who haunted the house was said to have belonged to a young boy who was heir to the Oxenby manor and its fortune. The youth was orphaned at a young age and left in the care of a sinister guardian. The guardian decided instead to kill the boy and install his own son as the heir. But before the youth was killed, he was forced to watch the torture and mutilation his pet cat. For decades after, the cat would suddenly appear to residents and guests of the manor, usually in a pitiful state. A witness described that animal as being covered in blood with both an eye and hind paw missing. The appearances of the cat were succeeded by several deaths of persons connected to the manor. The identity of the murdered boy was never revealed and the story may have eventually been dismissed as little more than a countryside myth. But according to Elliott's book, the haunting became so persistent that the owners of the manor began several excavations on the property:

“The [owners] excavated in different parts of the haunted wing and found, in the cellar, at a depth of some eight or nine feet, the skeletons of three men and two women; whilst in the wainscoting of the passage they discovered the bones of a boy, all of which remains they had properly interred in the churchyard. According to local tradition, handed down through many centuries by word of mouth, the house originally belonged to a knight, who, with his wife, was killed out hunting. He had only one
child, a boy of about ten, who became a ward in chancery. The man appointed by the Crown as guardian to this child proved an inhuman monster, and after ill-treating the lad in every conceivable manner, eventually murdered him and tried to substitute a bastard boy of his own in his place. For a time the fraud succeeded, but on its being eventually found out, the murderer and his offspring were both brought to trial and hanged.”

FAITHFUL TO THE END: The fidelity of dogs is one of their most endearing qualities. An American lawyer named George Graham Vest once wrote of them: “...the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying [his master], to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground... there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad... faithful and true even in death.”

Of the hundreds of recorded accounts of animal specters, dogs are probably the most common. Some of this may be due to the dog's popularity with and long history among human beings. Some, as George Graham Vest indicated, may be due to the close emotional relationships that develop between our two species... relationships that may transcend death. The Society of Psychical Research, located in England, has hundreds of published reports about canine phantoms. Interestingly, many of these incidents appear to take place in close proximity to the animal's demise, which may indicate that this phenomenon is a crisis apparition, a phantom that appears at or near the moment of great trauma, often to convey a message to the percipient.

An example is that of Mrs. Mary Bagot from 1883. Mrs. Bagot reported to the Society an incident in which her terrier miraculously appeared to her in a French hotel. “I was sitting at dinner and suddenly saw my dog run across the room, and unthinkingly exclaimed, 'Why, there's Judy!'...” reported Mrs. Bagot. “A few days later I got a letter saying that Judy had been suddenly taken ill and died... My impression is that she died the day I saw her.”

Mrs. Bagot seemed to believe that her dog Judy appeared in order to say goodbye at the moment of her death. Human crisis apparitions appear under similar circumstances. (See Polaris's personal account about his pet cat below for more on this phenomenon.)

DELENN'S LAST CRY: Before the OCE team was even formed, Polaris owned a female black cat named “Delenn.” When Delenn died at the age of five, Polaris had an amazing experience with her. Here is his story, as he dictated to our webmasters over the phone.

“I adopted her from the Kaua'i Humane Society, partly because she seemed to have great inner strength,” Polaris recalled. “Our veterinarian thought that she might be suffering from feline leukemia, but all of the tests we ran on her came back as inconclusive. She lived with us for about three years; and then one evening she crawled into the back of the closet in the main bedroom and didn't come out. I took her into the vet the following morning but the prognosis was good. The vet thought that we would be able to pull her through this episode so I agreed to have her hospitalized. I remember that before I left the hospital, she crawled off the examination table and onto my lap. She hadn't wanted to be held up to that point, but she curled up on my lap and began to purr.

“I went home optimistic that Delenn would be alright. The vet promised to call me the following morning with an update on her condition. I cooked dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. I think I was concerned about Delenn, but I don't remember being overly worried because I had confidence in my veterinarian. About four a.m., I was sound asleep and I distinctly heard Delenn meow in my ear. She had a deep, croaking voice. Many of my friends and family members thought she was male because of her voice. It was so distinctive that I sat right up in bed and looked around. It took me a moment to realize where she was and where I was. I knew right then that she had died. I knew somehow that that meow was her saying goodbye to me. I lay in bed for about another four hours, just staring up at the ceiling. Around eight, the vet called me and told me that Delenn had died during the night. As sad as that was for me, I took some comfort in hearing that last cry from her. Lots of people have told me that I must have dreamed that meow, but even if I did that doesn't mean that somehow it didn't originate from that little, sickly cat.”

WHAT ABOUT HORSES? Although the OCE webmasters found several accounts of ghostly horses, (and O'Donnell dedicates an entire chapter to equine spirits in his book) they were not able to find any published reports on horses haunted rodeo grounds. (Although, considering the brutality of many rodeos, the webmasters do find it highly likely that such hauntings would occur.) There are numerous superstitions about horses, however, many originating from the American west during the frontier era when these animals were so essential to human survival. White horses, for example, were often considered harbingers of doom... similar to the black dog legends mentioned above. Horses were also said to have the innate ability to detect ghosts and will often refuse to enter areas that are known to be haunted.

[This information was originally transmitted as an enewsletter on August 11, 2007.]