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ANIMAL GHOSTS

OR,

ANIMAL HAUNTINGS AND THE HEREAFTER

BY ELLIOTT O'DONNELL

AUTHOR OF

"THE SORCERY CLUB," "WERWOLVES," "BYWAYS OF GHOSTLAND," "SCOTTISH
GHOSTS," "HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON," "HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND AND
WALES," "DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS," "FOR SATAN'S SAKE," "THE UNKNOWN
DEPTHS," "DINEVAH THE BEAUTIFUL," "JENNIE BARLOWE," "GHOSTLY PHENOMENA,"
"MRS. E.M. WARD'S REMINISCENCES," ETC. ETC. LONDON

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD.
CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1913

_First Published November, 1913._




PREFACE

If human beings, with all their vices, have a future life, assuredly
animals, who in character so often equal, nay, excel human beings, have
a future life also. Those who in the Scriptures find a key to all things, can find nothing
in them to confute this argument. 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'être_ 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. Consider again, the case of another of our four-footed friends--the dog;
the faithful, affectionate, obedient and forgiving dog, the dog who is
so often called upon to stand all sorts of rough treatment, and is shot
or poisoned, if, provoked beyond endurance, he at last rounds on his
persecutors, and bites. And the cat--the timid, peaceful cat who is
mauled, and all but pulled in two by cruel children, and beaten to a
jelly when in sheer agony and fright it scratches. Reflect again, on the
cow and the sheep, fed only to supply our wants; shouted at and kicked,
if, when nearly scared out of their senses, they wander off the track;
and pole-axed, or done to death in some equally atrocious manner when
the sickening demand for flesh food is at its height. And yet, you say, these innocent, unoffending--and, I say,
martyred--animals are to have no future, no compensation. Monstrous! Absurd! It is an effrontery to common sense, philosophy--anything,
everything. It is a damned lie, damned bigotry, damned nonsense. The
whole animal world will live again; and it will be man--spoilt,
presumptuous, degenerate man--who will not participate in another life,
unless he very much improves. Think well over this,--you who preach the gospel of man's
pre-eminence;--you who prate of God and know nothing whatsoever about
Him! The horse, dog, cat,--even the wild animals, whose vices,
perchance, pale beside your own, may go to Heaven before you. The
Supreme Architect is neither a Nero, nor a Stuart, nor a clown. He will
recompense all who deserve recompense, be they great or small--biped or
quadruped. It is to testify to a future existence for animals and to create a wider
interest in it that I have undertaken to compile this book; and my
object, I think, can best be achieved in my own way, the way of the
investigator of haunted places. The mere fact that there are
manifestations of "dead" people (pardon the paradox) proves some kind of
life after death for human beings; and happily the same proof is
available with regard a future life for animals; indeed there are as
many animal phantasms as human--perhaps more; hence, if the human being
lives again, so do his dumb friends. Be comforted then, you who love your pets, and have been kind to them. You will see them all again, on the soft undying pasture lands of your
Elysium and theirs. Be warned, you--you who have despised animals, and have been cruel to
them. Who knows but that, in your future life, you may be as they are
now--in subjection? *       *       *       *       *

My task in writing this book has been considerably lightened by the
extreme courtesy and kindness of Mr. Shirley, Mr. Eveleigh Nash, and the
Proprietors of the _Review of Reviews_, in allowing me to make use of
extracts and quotations from their most valuable works. ELLIOTT O'DONNELL. CONTENTS


PART I


CHAPTER I

CATS

PAGE

The Black Cat of the Old Manor House, Oxenby--Correspondence _re_ Cat
Phantasms--The Headless Cat of No. ----, Lower Seedley Road, Seedley,
Manchester--The Cat on the Post--Mystic Properties of Cats      3


CHAPTER II

DOGS

The Case of James Durham--The Grey Dog of ---- House, Birmingham--The
Dog in the Cupboard--How the Ghost of a Dog saved Life--A Precentor's
Adventure--Phantom Dog seen on Souter Fell--The Jumping Ghost--Dogs seen
before a Death--A Dog scared by a Canine Ghost--The Phantom Dachshund of
W---- Street, London, W.--An ALL Hallow Eve Ghost--The Strange
Disappearance of Mr. Jeremiah Dance--Phantasms of Living Dogs--The
Yellow Dog of K---- University--National Ghosts in the form of Dogs--The
Mauthe Doog--Spectral Hounds      57


CHAPTER III

HORSES AND THE UNKNOWN

A Phantom Cavalcade--The Miller on the Grey Horse--A Phantom Horse
and Rider--The White Horse of Eastover--The Afrikander's Story--Heralds
of Death--Phantom Coach in U.S.A.--A Story from Marseilles--Summary of
Horses--Phantasms of Living Horses--Horses and the Psychic Faculty of
Scent--Phantom Policeman and Horse--Phantom Huntsmen and Horses      139


CHAPTER IV

BULLS, COWS, PIGS, ETC. The Kirk-grim--Phantasm of a Goat--Phantom Hogs of the Moat
Grange--Sheep--Spectre Flock of Sheep in Germany      212


PART II


CHAPTER V

WILD ANIMALS AND THE UNKNOWN

Animal Phantasms and the Moon--The Case of Martin Tristram--Phantasms of
Cat and Ape--Hauntings by a White Rabbit--John Wesley's Ghost--Psychic
Faculty in Hares and Rabbits      223


CHAPTER VI

INHABITANTS OF THE JUNGLE

Elephants, Lions, Tigers, etc.--The White Tiger--Jungle Animals and
Psychic Faculties      254


PART III


CHAPTER VII

BIRDS AND THE UNKNOWN


Case from _Occult Review_--Bird Hauntings in Russia--Hauntings in
the Country Church--Capt. Morgan's Experiences--Addenda--Old Authorities
on Bird Omens      273


CHAPTER VIII

A BRIEF RETROSPECT      300


PART I

DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE UNKNOWN




ANIMAL GHOSTS




CHAPTER I

CATS


In opening this volume on Animals and their associations with the
unknown, I will commence with a case of hauntings in the Old Manor
House, at Oxenby. My informant was a Mrs. Hartnoll, whom I can see in my mind's eye, as
distinctly as if I were looking at her now.