Ghost cat??

[Frankie]

As I am staying at my parents home short term. I have heard the stranger thing that defies even my sceptical belief.

My parents, had a cat, he had to be put down due to ill health about 3 years ago.

After visiting my mother in hospital, I was first through the door to the house. When I heard a my mothers bed groan and then a thump on her bedroom floor. This was followed by the sound of something walking down the hallway, then down the stairs right up the dividing door that likes the stair well to the dining room.
My dad said "oh the cats got out of bed then at last." I returned with "When did you have a new cat?" He replied " We haven't that noise is the Sooty. He is often heard doing that."


Now, I don't believe in such things, but I cannot work out what it is, my mums bed is new, the flooring upstairs is solid, there was no heating on to make the pipework creak and mimic a cat walking around. Up until that night I hadn't anything like that before. I have heard it now 3 times, nobody is in the house the heating was one the last time. It sounds identical to what the cat used to do when my parents went out.

Explanations for what it is?

[Soapy Sam]

Rats?
Birds on the roof or in an attic or under eaves space?
(Sparrows wear hobnailed boots. At least the ones under my weatherboarding do.)

Try a sound activated mike and a tape recorder. (Personal dictation gadgets are good) See if you can get it on tape and find if it can be correlated with known events like heating switching on / off, operating machinery like washing machines or passing traffic. - in my childhood home I often heard what sounded like footsteps upstairs. Turned out to be caused by trucks hitting potholes in the road about 100 metres away. It was actually the window vibrating.

I take it you don't actually see the bed rebound or paw prints on the carpet? If so, get it on vid and I'll split the million with you.:D

[MRC_Hans]

I once had a cat, and nearly each night heard it jump from a table in the kitchen. Only, the cat died, but the sound persisted ;).

Obviously, I never actually SAW it jump. Obviously, your father never SAW the cat jump from the bed and walk across the floor (since he had to be downstairs to hear the sound). He just heard the sound and assumed it was the cat (like me). Well, apparantly, it never was the cat.

Hans

[Frankie]

Originally posted by Soapy Sam
Rats?
Birds on the roof or in an attic or under eaves space?
(Sparrows wear hobnailed boots. At least the ones under my weatherboarding do.)

Try a sound activated mike and a tape recorder. (Personal dictation gadgets are good) See if you can get it on tape and find if it can be correlated with known events like heating switching on / off, operating machinery like washing machines or passing traffic. - in my childhood home I often heard what sounded like footsteps upstairs. Turned out to be caused by trucks hitting potholes in the road about 100 metres away. It was actually the window vibrating.

I take it you don't actually see the bed rebound or paw prints on the carpet? If so, get it on vid and I'll split the million with you.:D
No I have never seen the cat or heard it even miaow.

Most of that I have already checked out. Nothing was on and nothing was moving outside. There are no neighbours close by to say it was from their house. The bed is not dented nothing to indicate a cat presence or any marks in the carpet, The attic contains no animals or birds it is sealed tight. No wind the first time I heard it. Very odd it is.

Just the noise of something moving from the bed to the floor along the hall and down the stair to the dining room door. Just as the cat did when it was alive. I would say it sounds ludicrous that a house could remember such things and recreate the noise itself, but, that I viewed as a possibility far more than a ghost.

A mystery that needs solving. Any evidence of a ghost and I'll buy you a drink or 2, of water naturally, soapy sam.:D

[Frankie]

Originally posted by MRC_Hans
I once had a cat, and nearly each night heard it jump from a table in the kitchen. Only, the cat died, but the sound persisted ;).

Obviously, I never actually SAW it jump. Obviously, your father never SAW the cat jump from the bed and walk across the floor (since he had to be downstairs to hear the sound). He just heard the sound and assumed it was the cat (like me). Well, apparently, it never was the cat.

Hans
Hans.
So my ludicrous theory that a house of furniture remember and mimic a repetitive sound may not be as silly as I first thought? It certainly makes far more sense than a ghost cat.

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by Frankie

Hans.
So my ludicrous theory that a house of furniture remember and mimic a repetitive sound may not be as silly as I first thought? It certainly makes far more sense than a ghost cat. I think it would still get you the million if you could prove it, though.

Rolfe.

[The Don]

Originally posted by Frankie

Hans.
So my ludicrous theory that a house of furniture remember and mimic a repetitive sound may not be as silly as I first thought? It certainly makes far more sense than a ghost cat.

Apologies if you were being humourous in the above, my sense of humour flag seems to be set to 'N' today.

What Hans is saying is that the noises described were NEVER made by the cat. Every so often, the same noses made by furniture/house settling/outside factors seemed, to you and your father, to sound like a cat doing whatever it was.

Instead of doing the rational thing and saying "well gee, I guess those noises weren't the cat after all" you find it more plausable to believe that the cat's ghost is causing the noice.

Exceptional reasoning by the way Hans !!

[MRC_Hans]

Right, that is what I am saying. And thanx :o

You hear some sounds and interpret them as something, and as long as that something is possible (there is actually a cat in the house) you never question it. This is the stuff beliefs are made of.

But think about it: You hear a cat walking across a carpet ?? Have you ever watched a cat walk over a carpet? Of course you have, did it make much sound? Enough to be heard on the floor below? I doubt it, cats are notoriously silent walkers.

Hans

[Soapy Sam]

Hans' reasoning is impeccable. The noise never was made by the living cat. But that still leaves the question of what is causing the noise.
The only way to answer that is accurate recording of data. Does it occur at a fixed time? Does anything correlate with it-temperature, weather, etc.?

Sounds like an interesting little project which might have fascinating results. It may take time to spot a pattern though. If you don't live there yourself, Frankie, you might try getting your father involved in keeping detailed logs of the noise. You describe it as highly mobile, but restricted to a fixed zone. This perception may change if observed from different points in the apparent zone of movement.

Window panes are excellent rebroadcasters of vibration for instance- wall mounted loudspeakers in effect.

If you can localise one part of the sound , try piling some heavy books on floorboards and against windows to see if the sound characteristics change.

Do report back. It could be instructive for us all.

[Keneke]

Another question: You can hear a cat walk down the hall, alive or dead? I can't hear mine unless he runs.

[Psi Baba]

Originally posted by MRC_Hans
I doubt it, cats are notoriously silent walkers.

Hans
Except when one is chasing another down the stairs. Even two cats can sound like a stampeding heard of wildebeest from the floor below!

[Soapy Sam]

As a sceptic, I must ask. Have you ever heard a stampeding herd of wildebeest from the floor below?

[epepke]

Originally posted by The Don


Apologies if you were being humourous in the above, my sense of humour flag seems to be set to 'N' today.

What Hans is saying is that the noises described were NEVER made by the cat. Every so often, the same noses made by furniture/house settling/outside factors seemed, to you and your father, to sound like a cat doing whatever it was.

Something like this happened to me. Every once in a while, there would be this knocking noise. I always thought it was thunder or fireworks in the distance. My girlfriend always thought it was Bosco, the undifferentiated terrier, knocking around upstairs. This went on for months. What it turned out to be was an electric clock hanging outside on the rear porch. When the wind hit it, it bumped against the wall, and due to some mysterious acoustic transmission, made a sound that was almost, but not entirely unlike the sound of a clock bumping into a wall. (Apologies to Douglas Adams)

[MRC_Hans]

Houses make all sorts of sounds. A house if up to several hundred tons of different materials heaped, mortared, bolted, nailed, glued, etc. together. Every time the wind, temperature, or air moisture changes, those materials shift a little making creaking, groaning, bumping, whispering, rattling noises. Houses are usually populated with not only people and pets, but usually birds, insects, sometimes ferrets and rodents.

First test for your "ghost cat": Next time you hear it, listen to it keeping in mind that it is NOT a cat. With that observer prejudice out of the way, you may perceive the sound quite differently, and you might suddenly realize what it really is.

(Btw, one "source" of ghost sounds is crows or other large birds landing on the roof, and hopping along the roof tiles: Bump! tap-tap-tap......).

Hans

[Frankie]

Originally posted by Keneke
Another question: You can hear a cat walk down the hall, alive or dead? I can't hear mine unless he runs.
The cat was a fat cat. Heavy footed. If he sat on you, you knew it by the dead legs shortly that followed such a sit.

[Frankie]

Forgive my lack of reply. Other pressing items have my attention at the moment. I will re-read more throughly and reply back, when this other item is at a sufficient stage to allow me more free time.

Thanks Frankie.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Frankie
Explanations for what it is?
Ghost cat.

[Powa]

Originally posted by Yahweh
Ghost cat.
You seem to have misplaced your Occam's razor. Oh, you were kidding... Never mind, carry on. :D

[Powa]

By the way, what do you feed a ghost cat? Ghost milk? Or does it catch ghost mice?

[Frankie]

Originally posted by Powa
By the way, what do you feed a ghost cat? Ghost milk? Or does it catch ghost mice?
lol:D

It has ghostscream and spirit-tuna.Chases skeleton mice.:p

[Starrman]

The cat was a fat cat. Heavy footed.

I don't know about this. I don't think cats are quiet when they walk because of their weight or lack thereof. They are quiet because they have soft, padded feet with retractable claws. I can't imagine even the fattest cat making noise with its feet as it walks down the hall.

[Nucular]

Originally posted by Starrman


I don't know about this. I don't think cats are quiet when they walk because of their weight or lack thereof. They are quiet because they have soft, padded feet with retractable claws. I can't imagine even the fattest cat making noise with its feet as it walks down the hall. Yeah, last time I was at the zoo, I spent ages watching a lion pad silently in his enclosure - I was right near it, couldn't hear a thing, whether he was on grass or concrete. It's what cats do - it's necessary for them to be able to walk silently.

Trouble is with this kind of investigation, it's very easy to reject plausible explanations because we don't want them to be true: it's a fact that central heating is less interesting than feline ghosts. But I also think the truth is more interesting than mistakes, so shave that dead cat with Occam's razor. I'd quite like to hear a solution.

[Lucianarchy]

It's really quite possible that a neighbour's cat is coming in for a nap and legging it when he gets disturbed.

Test.

Put down some cat food in the bedroom.

[DickK]

Originally posted by Starrman


I don't know about this. I don't think cats are quiet when they walk because of their weight or lack thereof. They are quiet because they have soft, padded feet with retractable claws. I can't imagine even the fattest cat making noise with its feet as it walks down the hall. "...Unheard by day,
Unseen by night,
On muffled feet of steel
Clad in velvet shoes." Paul Gallico.

As a general rule, cats are completely silent until they engage the enemy. Thereafter, the battle and retreat can be as noisy as they want.