Next day I encouraged cook to talk of Ruff, the former black cat, which
had been a great favourite of hers, and which she had been nursing when
he was dying. "Oh, poor thing, when he was ill, he would creep into dark
corners, so I put him in his basket into the cupboard, making it very
comfortable for him, and there he died"--pointing to the very corner
which caused such horror to Kitty. "RÜGEN." Letter 5


_Captain Humphries's Story--A Materialized Cat_

My son had the following experience at the age of four years in our
Worcestershire home. He was an only child and spent much of his time in the company of a cat
who shared his tastes and pursuits even to the extent of fishing in the
River Weir with him, the cat being far more proficient at the sport than
the boy. When the cat died we none of us dared to break the news to the
child, and were much surprised when he asked us to say why his cat only
came to play with him at nights nowadays. When we questioned him about
it, he stoutly maintained that his cat was there in bodily form every
night after he went to bed, looking much the same but a little thinner. At about the same age, one evening after being in bed one hour, I heard
him cry out, and going upstairs (his maid also heard and ran up) and
asking him what was the matter, he said that an old gentleman with a
long grey beard like his grandfather came into his room, and stood at
the front of his bed. At the very moment, the former had a seizure in
his carriage while driving through the streets of Birmingham, from which
he died without regaining consciousness; later on he recognized a
photograph of his grandfather as being the person he saw at the foot of
his bed. My wife, the maid, and myself can vouch for the accuracy of
these statements, also friends to whom we have related these facts. "MUNSTER." Letter 6


_Mrs. E.J. Ellis's Story--"The Old Woman's Cat"_

My wife, writes Mr. Ellis, who was brought up in Germany, and who is not
sufficiently confident about her English to attempt to put down anything
for publication in that language, tells me the following story for the
_Occult Review_:--

"When I was a little girl living with my family near Michelstadt in the
Odenwald, I remember an old woman like an old witch, whose name was
Louise, and who was called 'Pfeiffe Louise,' because she exhibited pipes
for sale in her cottage window, along with the cheap dress-stuffs,
needles and threads, and simple toys for children which were her
stock-in-trade. She had a favourite cat which was devoted to her, but
its attachment doesn't seem to have been enough to make her happy, for
she married a young sergeant named Lautenschlager, who might have been
her son--or indeed her grandson--and who, as everyone said, courted her
for her money. She died as long ago as 1869, and during her last illness
the devoted cat was always with her. It kept watch beside the body when
she was dead, and refused to be driven away. In a fit of exasperation
Lautenschlager seized it, carried it off, and drowned it in the little
River Mumling, at a place where the road from Michelstadt to the
neighbouring village Steinbach runs near the water's edge. It was
bordered with poplars then, but chestnut trees shade it now. "Soon after his first wife was buried Lautenschlager married again, and
opened an eating-house in Steinbach, where he established his second
wife. He had a sister whom he placed in the cottage of poor 'Pfeiffe
Louise.' She carried on the business, and every day Lautenschlager used
to walk over from Steinbach to see how she was getting on, returning in
the evening to his wife, who used to relate to my mother that he
frequently came home terrified and bathed in perspiration, for as he
passed the place where he had drowned the cat, its ghost used to come
out of the river and run beside him along the dark road, sometimes
terrifying him still more by jumping in front of him. "After a few years of married life the second wife died, and
Lautenschlager married a third. The little cottage business had
prospered, and in its place he now had a considerable draper's shop in
Michelstadt. He continued to walk over from Steinbach, where now the
third wife lived in the eating-house, and the ghost of the cat continued
to frighten him by appearing at nightfall as he walked beside the river. "I can remember hearing his third wife describe his dread of it, and my
mother has told me how both the sister and the second wife used to say
the same thing, though I was too young then for them to tell me about
it. Lautenschlager used also to complain to the country people who came
to dine at his eating-house. He considered himself an ill-used man, and
felt that the supernatural powers were treating him very hardly, and
subjecting him to a real persecution. I have only the conversation of
his wife and the gossip of the village to vouch for his sincerity, and
the genuineness of the apparition is supported only by Lautenschlager's
word, but his evident anger and agitation were accepted as genuine, and
no one dreamed of doubting his word. He was not at all a dreamy or
imaginative man, and did not drink. His passion was merely momentary. He
was not only a draper and caterer but a usurer, and realized something
of a fortune by lending money on good security to peasants and farmers
who, it was said, did not consider how they bound themselves when they
signed the papers he put before them. "Lautenschlager continued to be haunted by the cat-ghost at irregular
intervals for more than twenty years, and it made a marked change in his
character. He became serious, and during the latter part of his life
would only talk about religion and read sacred literature. He died about
ten years ago." "FELINE." Letter 7


_A Spectral Fox-terrier_

Two or three years ago I visited a medium (Mrs. Davies of 44 Laburnum
Grove, Portsmouth). I had been seated only a few minutes when a little
pug-dog of hers looked up in the direction of my knees and down towards
my feet, growling and howling in a most strange manner. "What on earth is he looking at?" I exclaimed. "Oh," said the medium, "there is a little fox-terrier lying across your
feet; one half of his face is quite dark and the other half white, but
he has such a peculiar black patch over the eye that one would almost
think it was a black bruise." Now, sir, I had such a little dog in
India, but this lady did not know of him, and would never have known had
he not, as I afterwards found, died out there. This is not only a case
of the appearance of an animal after death, but also a case in which it
was seen by another animal, as also by the medium. I am also told that
the pug-dog who had this vision of my dog was once seen to pounce upon
what seemed to the medium to be several cats, near the copper in the
scullery of the same house. The medium asked a neighbour if the previous
occupants had had any cats.