I never have, I'm pretty cynical and inclined to believe what can be proved. Both my black cats died a short time ago and recently I have been seeing black shadows at the corner of my eye, when I turn towards it, there's nothing there - of course. But then a black shadow moved across my peripheral vision, just for a split second. Sometimes the sitting room door opens and for a split second i expect to see one of my cats coming through, but there's nothing there. I don't mind, I quite welcome these 'apparitions' and say hello. But wondered if anyone else had had these experiences.

I believe this is quite a common experience. It's possibly because we are so used to seeing our pets around, it takes a while to adjust and we misinterpret things. It would be nice if it was true though!

I see lots of shadows, thinking there is something, but in my case its floaters in my eyes doing it.

Oh boo - what a downer!

One of my cats died of a heart attack just outside my bedroom door. The senior cat sat next to his body in a sort of vigil. About 10 mins later I saw him follow something invisible to me round the room very slowly. There was most probably an explanation for it but it spooked me at the time.

The truth is out there:

My very first apartment had a lot of amenities I liked – a deck, off-street parking, a huge living room and a large bedroom with a huge closet. It also had something else… a ghost cat.

No, but I can understand why people would want to.

I've had a few odd experiences during extreme tiredness and fatigue.

That's really interesting actually. When my first cat died in 2005, I kept seeing a dark shape rush past, like you, out of the corner of my eye - and always in the kitchen. My girl friend at the time mentioned that she had seen this shape rush past also - but she mentioned it to me, before I had said anything to her. When she told me, I said I'd also seen the same thing.

Continued for several months, then abruptly stopped for both of us at the same time.

I also felt as if she'd jumped on the bed, a number of times, like she always used to - and it wasn't the cat I then had.

I've seen this myself, it appears to be a fairly common phenomena and I would suggest, at the risk of offending those who believe themselves to be "spiritually sensitive" it is definitely all in the mind.

We have our pets for a good few years, so there is an ingrained memory. When our first dog died, one of our rescue Papillons, a few days after, I was sitting at my PC when I saw him walk across the landing. It was of course, just some sort of memory replay but it just goes to show how much we rely on our vision as our primary sense, and therefore how hard it is to disbelieve what we see,

As a similar story, years ago when I worked in Halfords in Charlton, my co worker, a chap named Bill Early (whose brother was the drummer with Sade and Van Morrison, not relelvant to the story, but a nice namedrop) used to cycle in every morning.
A fair few years later after I had left, I popped back in to see him and a member of staff told me he had passed away in the intervening years but also said the man who ran the breakfast/burger van outside, and had done for many years, had seen Bill ride in on his bike one morning ... he had seen Bill's ghost. I firmly believe that to be exactly the same sort of residual memory effect I had with my dog, and others have had in this thread.

Thing is, I never even associated what I saw with being the ghost of my dead cat, until the girl friend, unprompted, said she had seen the same, in the same place. I thought it might be my eyes or something.

I never know if noises or sightings are residual or "hauntings", have seen shapes out the corner of my eye. A few weeks after my Molly had died, right by where l was standing cleaning the sink in the bathroom, were two pussy cat sneezes. I searched all rooms and went downstairs to check where Tom (our newly adopted cat) was and he was in the kitchen eating.

I have had a couple of meow's and trills, where no cat was around.

The most startling was one evening, the living room door was shut (and this is only till Tom finds his feet, and does not want to pee on an indoor mat) and a huge bang was made on the door, both my mother and l looked at each other.

We have had two other cats die in the house, and when Molly was alive she use to lay by the fire and track something moving round the room.

I'm prepared to go with the residuals, when you have had a pet for a long time, I can see how we expect them to be there, even when they are not. I was walking through the dining room when i thought I saw my cat sitting there and went to walk round her before realising there was nothing there. I keep hearing random miaows but put it down to next door's cat. When I mentioned it to my neighbour she said her cat hardly ever makes a sound, it's the quietest cats she has ever had. So who knows? I don't mind either way, just so long as it keeps on happening.

I didn't until I was walking my dog in woods and saw what looked like a Friar, dressed in peach/brown robes. It really spooked me but it is a place with a very long mixed history.

After we lost our dog at xmas I kept seeing her, going up the stairs, sitting up in her basket by the bed at night etc. The really strange thing is that we have 3 other dogs and the basket she usually slept in the bedroom is very popular, they'd race upstairs after supper to get it and she usually won but none of the others went in 'her' basket for 3 months, even after I'd washed the bedding in it. They go in it now but it's so strange that it took a full 3 months, they didn't even step in it. They used all the other baskets and beds upstairs and down, just not that one.

Yes I believe in 'ghosts'. A friend and I saw someone we knew, we commented on who was he with. Later that day we separately were told he'd died the previous week.

That's another topic.

I so wanted my cat to come back but she didn't. Not for me to see but for months I felt her jumping onto my bed. That was my wish and imagination.

We have lived here a long time and lost several dogs over that time we still occasionally hear our old terriers pitter patting along the Lino in the hallway even though we put down carpet well over 15 years ago so it can't be real. Also after my mil died several of the ornaments she gave us turned around to face the wall the day after she died. So yes I believe there has to be something else and ghosts may be the answer.

Ohhhhh Scary, but I guess you never seen one yet.

My dad told me onc about one he saw - he was a builder and was doing some plastering in a customers home when a cat came in, loooked about and left, later he mentioned to the homeowners about what a lovely cat they have, they asked him to describe the cat, and the wife turned to her hubby and said see, what she saw was real, as it was their cat that had been run over and killed a few weeks before.

It isn't scary at all Martin. For some of us it would be a sweet and loving reassurance. Difficult to explain if death frightens you, which I understand.

The very first spirit that I properly encountered was after the family cat (that we'd had since I was a child) had died and I was staying over at my parents house.

I felt her moving about on the bed liked I used to and was only half asleep and thought "oh it's only the cat", then in my semi conscious state I remembered that she had 'died'.

As soon as I moved up to look at her she jumped off the bed and made that special thump on the floor that all people with cats will understand.

I believe that she was making a final visit to say goodbye.

After this, I became interested in spiritualism and knew that there was nothing to be frightened of.

Thirty odd years later I now know that it's part of the process of an animals soul progressing to the spirit world.

I can recommend a book called 'When Your Animal Dies', I know it sounds morbid but it's helped many people get over the loss of their pets by explaining what its believed happens.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...l_9mzov5eqrv_e

http://psychics.co.uk/blog/what-happ...when-they-die/

Isn't it wonderful that the brain can interpret random electrical impulses this way. And people can even write books about it.

Still if someone can provide me with proof I am perfectly willing to accept that ghost are real. I can review the proof for gravity waves now and many of us thought that these would never be detected, so come on with the proof please.

Whether you personally believe or not, is your call.

Believers are not asking you to believe, nor are they under any obligation to supply you personally with "proof".

Lost my black and white cat a few months ago. She was 21 so we can hardly remember not having her.

For weeks afterwards, every time I saw something dark-ish, and about her size out of the corner of my eye (bin bag outside/hat on table etc) I'd assume it was her. Then look again and realise it wasn't. I think when she was alive maybe haf the time, when I was just vaguely aware of her out of the corner of my eye - maybe it was just some ramdom small, dark thing.

I have had supernatural experiences but not in this case. It made me realise how much of the time things I'd assumed were her, in my peripheral vision, maybe weren't.

I have read that this phenomenon is common with cat owners, and they seem more prone to this than dogs, rabbits etc but maybe it's cultural - that deep in our psyche, cats have long had associations with the supernatural?

This is a very interesting thread - I never assumed it might be relatively common and haven't told many people about my experience, as I thought they would naturally assume I'd lost the plot. This was no shadow out of the corner of my eye.

I lost my 16 year old cat in 2012, and to say that I missed him madly would be an understatement. I was coping quite badly.

One night, I had just turned my bedside light off, I heard this very familiar soft landing thud at the end of the bed and I knew straight away what it was. He walked towards the pillow next to me and curled up, like he would usually do at night.
I wasn't startled or scared, but I knew I had to touch him, just to make sure.
I gently stroked his head for a while, he started purring and I fell asleep.
Curiously it was the best sleep I'd had in ages.

Next morning - no cat. I never saw him again after that, but I am 100% certain I was not asleep or dreaming.
I am not religious or superstitious - I do think it was some sort of residue, albeit in this case a very vivid one.
I assume my brain was telling me I had to let go of this intense grief at some stage, and I had to "say goodbye".

As I said, it was not scary at all, quite the contrary.

What a lovely experience Enfant Terrible and the fact that you stroked him... Thank you.

Oh I wish that I could have stroked my cat after she jumped on my bed in those days after pts but that's the mystery isn't it? She never wanted that in the first place so why change afterwards.

I find it comforting.

I had 4 Persian cats. They gradually died one by one at around 18yrs old - and one evening we were watching telly and heard Bernie come into the room. She had died about 6 months previously. You always knew it was her as she struggled retracting her claws so they got slightly caught in the carpet pile. You always heard her approach before seeing her. On this particular evening both of us turned to see what was making the noise. There was nothing there, no shadow or anything, but we were sure it was Bernie letting us know she was still around.

One of my others cats used to meow outside the bedroom door in the morning, and one morning we heard him call. He had been dead a while before this happened and both myself and my husband heard it at the same time.

I lost my beloved Springer Spaniel last October, and I have seen him three times - mainly in our hallway. It has only been a glance or a shadow of his gorgeous body walking down the hall, but it made me smile.

I don't know if I believe in ghosts or not - but the events above have brought me comfort. I like the thought they are still around.