Me and My Dog Browny
Prashanta, Kathmandu
January 2008
I live in Kathmandu, which is the capital of Nepal and I am not a big fan of animals seeing ghosts but as luck would have it, I was in such a sighting myself.
I have included the story below:
A few weeks ago I was watching T.V. in my room on the ground floor of our house. Our neighborhood is crowded & there are very little open spaces left so you wouldn't expect any kind of ghosts.
It was around 11 pm & I was happily watching some movie on Star Movies when our dog started barking. Now for most people this may not seem unusual but our dog NEVER barks, except when we tease him a lot. Even when strangers come into our compound, he runs gleefully wagging his tail to greet them. And being that I hadn't heard him bark in a few long months I was very curious as to why he had barked.
I came out on the front porch and called him by his name, "Browny" (literally translated from Nepali), and he came running to me wagging his tail as if he was very happy to see me. Our compound is illuminated by a coulple of lights and I could see very clearly inside the compound as well as outside our gate. I could see no one there. I decided to investigate and I checked everywhere but I could see no one nor could I see anything that was even remotely suspicious. Still I decided to be very sure before I jumped to any conclusions & even went outside our gate to check the road. Empty.
Now that was wierd enough but I just thought that maybe browny felt like barking or saw some type of rodent & started barking. So I came up to the front porch and there was browny sitting down looking at something a few feet ahead on the ground. I walked up to him and called his name. As soon as I got near him, he seemed to have gotten an increase in courage and he started barking again. Now I was standing right beside him on the front porch & I was looking at an empty compound but browny seemed to see someone or something there & was barking. I called him again and when he looked in my direction, he was a happy dog wagging his tail & everything, but as soon as he looked away from me, he would look at the same point on the ground and start barking again.
Now I am not easily scared because I am a bit of a skeptic and even though I was puzzled, I went to the spot where browny was looking at and stood there. He was still barking looking at the spot very close to me. I told him that there was no one there and asked him why he was barking (rhetoric question of course). I called him to my side and he came wagging his tail. I petted him for a while and told him that there was no one there. He was OK as long as he looked at me, but as soon as he turned his head, he started barking again, this time looking a few feet ahead of the spot from where I was standing, as if the person who he was barking at had moved a few feet away from us. Still, as I have already said, I am not easily freaked out and this time I moved to the spot where he was looking at and again called him to my side. This time browny did not come right up to me but stood about a foot away barking at something right next to me. A few hairs on the back of my neck and arms started rising and I felt my chest starting to swell. I told myself there was nothing to be afraid of ( :)yeah right) and looked very closely where browny was barking but I could not for the life of me see anything there, even though I willed myself to see.
Seeing nothing there, I again called to browny and the same thing happened. As long as he looked at ME, he was OK but as soon as he turned his head he started barking again. Then one of the wierdest moments in my life happened.
For all of you who still believe this to be a dog barking at something from this earth or just having a good time, read on.
Browny leapt out of the way of some invisible weapon swing and continued barking looking at a spot RIGHT NEXT to me. All this time I cannot see ANYTHING where he is barking at, nor can I see any branches or any physical objects that could have caused him to leap out of the way like that. That was some pretty freaky stuff!
Then he leapt out of the way again. It was as if the unwelcome visitor was swining a cane at my browny and browny was dogding and still barking. I was determined not to leave browny alone in his fight and I was determined to scare the unseen visitor away from our home so I decided to use Browny as my eyes and I started kicking and punching at the air where he was barking. It felt just like punching the air and I do not know if I hit the unseen visitor or even if that was what eventually caused him to leave but I kept at it and after a few more place changes and a lot of kicks and punches in the air, browny finally fell quiet. I felt like we had just driven an unwelcome visitor away from our home and to this day I do not know why or at what Browny was barking.
My parents and my brother know nothing about this incident as I have not told them for fear of being ridiculed but I hope I will never have to face such a situation like that again.