I worked at a small animal hospital in Ocala, Florida for
nearly two years. Several strange things happened here,
but I will highlight the most striking.
Because it was such a small clinic, the other technician
and myself doubled as kennel girls, and we would alternate
weekends to tend to the animals staying there, which meant
that we would go in twice a day on the days we were closed.
One Saturday evening, I walked in at twilight to take care
of the kennels. We had a hospitalized dog staying in the
treatment room, right next to the kennel room, and because
he would take the longest to tend to, I left him for last.
As I prepared to put a new catheter into him (he had bitten
the last one out), I realized that he had made a mess in
his cage, and because we needed to analyze his stool, I
took advantage of the situation, and took a sample into the
lab area in order to set it up for testing. Once a sample
is taken, it takes ten minutes for any potential parasite
eggs to float to the top of the test tube, so I left the
area in darkness, and returned to the treatment room to
deal with the catheter and clean up of both dog and cage. I
had the radio tuned into a classic rock station, and was
singing along to a favorite AC/DC tune, when I distinctly
heard the tapping of claws on the floor in the lab area.
Mind you, this over Bon Scott and Angus Young going on
about their dirty deeds, so for something like this to have
grabbed my attention, over a semi loud radio playing heavy
rock and roll, it was pretty loud, and experience told me
that it sounded much like a heavy animal. Just a note: We
never had any loose animals in the clinic unless they were
our own pets brought in during hours of operation. I went
to investigate, as I am prone to do when something
distracts me so.
I peeked out the treatment room door, and there was nothing
there, but the sound was coming toward me. Right next to
the microscope, floating several feet in the air, was a
bubble of a white light. There were no lights on in there,
or light coming in from the outside. I had not yet turned
on the light. Needless to say, I did not check the fecal
sample. I took care of the dog rather shakily and left!
Another incident was more dramatic. The last appointment
of the day had left, and the doctor was out the door, as
was the other technician, who had stayed late that day to
help me out we were so busy. She and I were chatting with
the receptionist in the front office area, and I glanced
over into the examination rooms, and was so startled by the
gray striped tabby kitten about to pounce on something that
I called out, "Loose cat in the clinic!" I took those words
back when the kitten disappeared as I watched. There were
no cats of that description in the clinic, and none had
been there earlier in the day.
No one liked to stay there alone, and I was not the first
or the last to experience the sounds of claws on the floor,
or the sounds of something crashing to the floor in the
doctor's office, only to run back there and find it empty
with everything in place. Other times, doors would open and
shut on their own, even with a client witnessing the event.
We actually lost a client over such an incident, for she
was too terrified to ever return. My dog, a Beagle mix
that is more intelligent than a lot of people I know, as
well as the receptionist's Poodle, both refused to walk in
a certain area in the hallway.
I am of the opinion that there are several animal ghosts
there, and possibly a human ghost that lingers, but I have
not had the opportunity to research the property history
for the latter, and can only imagine that with all the
euthanasia's and trauma related deaths there, that it would
be logical to have some critters hanging around. Whatever
it is, it's spooky and it's happened to everyone that has
ever spent a substantial amount of time at the hospital.
Submitted From: M. Jenkins, FL, USA
