Disappearing Cat

To start off, I come from a family in Ireland called the Macknamaras. We're known for certain "sensitivities" in the area of the supernatural. 90 percent of my Irish relatives have these "gifts".

From a young age I have been fascinated with ghosts and all other varieties of paranormal phenomenon. I sadly didn't show any of the traits that the mediums in our family did. Till age ten that is.

When my parents and I visited Europe we decided to go on a ghost tour. London is an old place. The first thing that happened wasn't all that remarkable, just the tour guide stopped at an old house. He explained that no one had ever been able to live there because it was so haunted. I whispered to my Dad "That's not true! There's a little old lady looking down at me from the second floor. She looks grumpy though, she's frowning at me." My Dad was a little stricken looking as he whispered to me "What lady?" I looked around the group but no one else had spotted the house's grim tenant. I brushed it off as a odd speck of dirt on the window that looked weird in the light. But the next event decided my fate as a true medium.

We went to this courtyard where there was this bronze statue of a cat named Hodges. Legend has it that the cat was trampled by a horse drawn carriage. Ever since the accident Hodges haunts that square. Not so exciting. But in the square there are also the oldest gas lamps in London. The guide turned our attention to those and I burst out laughing! My Dad asked what was so funny and I told him about the cat that was sitting right on top of the gas lamp, identical to the statue of hodges in the centre of the courtyard. My dad was confused as I narrated the "cat's" progress. "Look now it's sliding down the pole, and there it goes across the courtyard, why do you look so confused, Dad? It's still going and.......Hey where'd it go?" The group around me was still focused on the pole, except for my Dad who looked really pale. I thought it was some planned gag, but no one else had seemed to notice the feline that had just vanished among their midst.

Ever since that night I've been a regular old medium (tee-hee!).