Cat Got Your Tongue?

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm new to this site, and as my bio on my profile states, I've had plenty of paranormal encounters that I'll eventually share with you all. For now, I'm going to tell you a recent one...

Secondly though, an introduction:

The story takes place in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, where my girlfriend's house is. I was staying from Friday to Monday since her parents were away and wanted me to help mind the house and keep Jess company. The house is old, as is the town itself, and a fun piece of trivia is that if you look at all the old records of it, there isn't a single picture of her street. Not one. It's odd.

As I said, the house is already known for its strange happenings. Her dad has experienced things. For example, he was in bed one night and saw someone walk around the bed and out of the door. He'd assumed it was his wife, Jess's mum, leaving the room, so he asked where she was going. He never got a reply, and then he turned over only to find her lying next to him in bed, fast asleep.

Her mum has had stuff happen too. They had a streak of bad luck where their car window got smashed (but from the smash, it was evident it was broken from the inside) and then the oven door fell down and the glass fell out of that, too. It was at that point they went to a local shop and bought something that you burn in order to cleanse your house. I believe they did it in the new car they bought, and then they hung a dream-catcher in it too.

Now, both myself, Jess and her mum are volunteers at the local cemetery. We're part of a group, and we have access to the grave and crem records. We looked up her house in the database and found out a LOT of people have died in it over the years, right back to the early 1900's. It's possible that one, if not more, of those people are responsible for the blatant hauntings of the house.

ANYWAY, on to the story! Apologies, I thought an introduction was necessary.

Jess has a male cat called Leo, and originally he was never allowed in the house. However, due to a recent injury he obtained, he now comes in to eat his food and often sleep on a blanket on the table in the kitchen, or on the arm of a sofa in the living room. He's much more used to the house now.

As you may know, animals, especially cats, are said to be more sensitive to the paranormal. Many people report their cats following an unseen thing around the room. We'll get to that, let me tell you.

We let Leo in on Sunday evening. I was making dinner for Jess, and as I was frying some bacon, the fire alarm downstairs started going off. I opened the back door to let out the smoke and Jess wafted a towel around. I also opened the door to the stairs slightly in hopes that the smoke would clear faster. That was when Leo went up the stairs, since the noise was probably too much. The fire alarm on the stairs then went off, and I was unaware they had one there, but eventually Jess managed to get it to go off.

I was almost done with dinner when I realised she was still on the stairs ages after the alarm went off, and Leo hadn't come back down either. I figured she was playing with him, but when I went up the stairs I found her passed out at the top. I roused her and helped her down, leaving the door open behind me for Leo. We had dinner and watched some TV. Leo was still upstairs.

He very rarely gets to go upstairs, but he has done it before, and as we expected, we found him in her mum and dad's room, in the dark, relaxed on the double bed. From the hairs on it, he'd been all over the bed and not just in the one place he was lounging. He seemed like he'd been previously occupied. He was very aware but also quite calm, tail happily and evenly thumping down on the bed.

We sat with him a while, and that's when we noticed his behaviour getting more and more strange. He seemed to be following something around that we couldn't see. His ears would twitch like he was hearing things, he'd jerk, and then he'd relax again before repeating the cycle. Jess and I shared worried looks, clearly thinking the same thing. We voiced those thoughts, wondering if he was indeed experiencing the presence of someone other than ourselves.

Suddenly, he jumped off the bed and slunk out of the door onto the small, square bit of landing above the stairs. Jess could see him from where she was sat, but my view was blocked by the open door. He was apparently lying like he usually does, clearly content to be there.

Then, out of the blue, we heard the sound of a clearing throat. From the gruffness, we're assuming it was a man. It was definitely not from next door. It was plain as day, so crystal clear and obvious it was right outside on the landing where Leo was. My hairs stood on end and tears pricked my eyes like they always do whenever I'm scared or anxious. I wanted nothing more than to scream but my own throat tightened, and even though I wanted to run out, my legs locked and anyway, I didn't want to particularly risk running out into whatever it was that was out there.

The house had been so quiet. We were home alone, there was barely any traffic, we weren't talking and we couldn't hear noises from the houses on either side of ours. We knew what we heard, and soon after we followed Leo down the stairs once we'd plucked up the courage.

What do you think? Have you got pets that do this sort of thing? I'd like to know, we both would.

Thank you for reading, and I'll be following up with more stories soon.