what's new (dead) pussycat?

In the apartment I shared with a friend (see next post) we were on the 2nd story of a two story building. The owner of the building lived on the main floor flat and we both had 1/2 of the basement. Her access was from a stairwell in the front of the building and ours was a 2 story spiral stairwell at the back of the building. We also had a back door from that stairwell to the back yard, just a 1/2 story above the basement landing.

My roommate, at the time I moved in had 3 cats and as there was a littler box in the basement it was not uncommon to see one if not all the cats there when I was doing laundry or whatnot. What I noticed however after some time was that I didn't always see my roommate's cat(s).

He had 3 cats a black and white one, an all black one and a Siamese. What I would occasionally see, and always alone - the other cats were always upstairs - was another cat sitting on the steps or running up the steps. But this was a much larger and fluffier cat. All of the roomie's cats were short hairs and this other cat was a big fluffy beast. A creamy colour with white paws and facial markings.

After I had seen it 3 or 4 times I mentioned it to my roommate and he said the owner that lived downstairs originally had the top apartment and by default the back half of the basement and at that time also has a cat similar in appearance to the one I described. The cat's was named Papillon.

The next time I saw the ghost cat I said hello to him by name and I heard a soft meow before he disappeared.

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Years later (Dec 2006) when we were both preparing to move we were talking with the owner in her apartment (on the main floor) and I looked over on a bookcase and saw a picture of the cat I had so often seen in our basement. I asked her what happened to him and she mentioned he used to spend a lot of time on the stairs and liked the coolness of the basement, but one day he got out through the door to the back from the stairwell. They looked for days and days but he never returned.

I guess poor Papillon got lost or found a new home (or as is possible with a an indoor cat, worse...) but in death he returned home to place he loved most.

be gone

While working in an office in Westmount some co-workers mentioned some bizarre activity going on in the accounting rooms. When I took a look I got very familiar feelings (similar to those from the black things at my old apt). I noticed as I walked through the room any place where there was less light the feelings were stronger, and when I turned on lights or opened the window blinds the feelings weakened considerably.

This went on for a few days, or I should say evenings as I worked the 4 pm - midnight shift. the room was colder and colder no matter what the thermostat was set to. And people were feeling more and more uncomfortable.

The next evening at work I brought in my sage stick and some sage oil and did the best I could to clean the room of the presence that we felt. I left drops of oil at all doors and on the sills of each window. The room smelled like turkey stuffing for a few days, but the uncomfortable feelings and cold chills disappeared.

two against one

While I loved my apt, and my 'roommate' Cecile, in time there was something else in the Apt... I started noticing these two 'black' things... entities if you will. When I say they were black, that's not quite right, not so much black as devoid of light or colour. They were apparently seen by others, including my boyfriend at the time but this was only known to me after I moved out as they were afraid to mention at the time, they didn't want to freak me out.

I would see these things travel around the apt, mostly in the living room and my bedroom. They seemed to travel up and down the walls, across the floors and ceilings. Their routes were rather erratic, and fast. they'd scurry out of your field of vision and then appear on the other side in less than the blink of an eye. Poe (my cat) seemed to see them as well because I'd see his head move to match their movements. He became rather skittish. And Cecile seemed to be appearing less and less.

I never quite got a perfect view of them but then as I said their movements were very fast and the path they took was seldom a straight line. And at any rate it was not a solid colour, rather absence of light that flowed around them.

Then on one occasion in mid October, these two things I believe, attempted to possess me. One night I felt an extremely cold shaft of air pour down onto my head while laying in bed. When I would turn on the lights to see if the window was open or the ceiling fan were on the cold air would stop. When I'd turn the lights off again the cold air would came back.

I panicked. I'd never experienced this before. I didn't know what to do so I left the lights on while I thought. I decided that I'd have to confront this 'head on' and so when I shut off the light again I decided that as soon as I felt the cold air again I'd envision a miniature version of my self inside my head and picture it pushing up against the top of my head where the cold air was landing. This went on for quite some time, all the while I was thinking (very much like the scene in Lord of the Rings where Gandalf states so emphatically "You. Shall. Not. Pass." After what seemed like twenty minutes the cold air stopped. I sighed deeply, and soon fell asleep into a deep deep sleep.

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For Hallowe'en that year, friends and I went to a restaurant (L'Entité II) This was a restaurant that had a side room with 3-4 psychics, fortune tellers or card readers etc. If you ordered off the table d'hote, you received a free reading. Your waiter/waitress would tell you when it was your turn and then you'd go to the side room and sit down in front of the available reader.

When it was my turn I sat down at the table at the far right of the room. Across from me was a Tarot card reader that instructed me that I'd have one question and that while shuffling the cards I should think of my question to myself. Then when done I should place the deck of cards down, split the deck into three and then ask the question aloud. I said to her, if it was ok with her, that I'd rather not speak my question aloud (This being my standard, not too skeptical, but rather caution mode of asking questions when speaking with a psychic/tarot card reader/fortune teller etc) She said that was fine, which I found comforting because when they put up a fuss it's because they typically don't know what they're doing and will answer your question based on what they think you want to hear.

So I shuffled my cards and thought about my ailing Grandmother, wanting to know how she was doing and if her time was drawing near. when I placed the deck of cards down and then split the deck in three. When she turned over the cards she looked at them and then looked at me with a rather worried look on her face. This did not look good.

She looked back at the cards for a moment and then back at me. Then she said that these cards were not about my question. She said while I thought that what I asked was rather important and urgent, the cards knew better. She said that what I was asking about was not a worry and that all was fine -and indeed my grandmother lived for almost another 4 years in relative health and peace. Then she continued and said that she was gravely concerned about where I was living and that she feared for my safety. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. She was talking not about the neighbourhood I lived, worries of a fire or break-in; no, she was referring to 'them'. She said I had two choices and that I'd better choose quickly, time was not my friend at the moment. She said either pack up and move out as soon as I could, or stay and fight. She said if I needed she could refer me to a friend that could offer some advice on what to do, should I decide to stay. I thanked her but said I already knew what to do, I just didn't realize that it was that urgent. I mentioned I'd go to Melange Magique in the morning and get what I needed. She nodded and smiled and wish me strength.

Returning to the table in the main room I was surprised I didn't see what was coming... Oct 31st. Samhain... Pagan New Year when the veil between this world and the next is at it's thinnest. Laugh if you want but I knew then and there that by that night either I'd be out of the apt or they would.

The next morning I made a bee-line for Melange, picked up some salt, some chalk and the biggest sage smudge stick I could find. I returned to the apt and proceeded with preforming every protective spell and or banishment spell I could find in all my books. And when I ran out of those I made some up on the spot. By the time I was through you could barely see a thing the smoke was so think from the smudge stick. What you could see however were whit chalk pentagrams over ever window, every door, every electrical outlet, over sinks and toilet and drains. Anything the led in or out of the apartment had been spiritually sealed shut. I'd never focused so much on warding a place in my life but now was the time, if ever.

Midnight October 31st came and went and I soon realized that all the purification, protective, banishing and warding spells I had preformed had seem to have done the job. The negative activity ceased, I didn't see or feel the two 'things' any more. Poe seemed calmer and Cecile remained and returned to her more frequent visits and playing with Poe, much to my happiness.

I hope I never encounter such an event in my life again, but if I do, I'm ready.