The Cat Lady

When I was younger I moved into a Georgian terraced home with my family of six (how my family were able to afford it I am unaware).

The basic history of the building was it began as a school and later became a soup kitchen. It later became lodgings for a groundskeeper and his family; the groundskeeper died and his family moved away the house was then let out to various people, until it became the residence of a woman supposedly fanatical about cats, this woman also died while living in the house.

Our first experience of supernatural activity was on the first night we moved in. We kept the pets (two cats, one dog) downstairs. The dog was left in the kitchen and the two cats in the utility room (which was next to the door outside and always had a draft). The door was closed and there was no way to escape the rooms. The next morning the animals had swapped rooms, we put this down to the fact that someone forgot to shut the door, but it kept happening for a few weeks until my father finally allowed the animals upstairs (much to the delight of my siblings and I).

After we had finished the decorating in the main house my father began trying to clear up the cellar, it wasn't a real cellar in some ways it was just a hole in the ground. It was always muddy and during particularly wet weather the floor would accumulate about an inch of water but when it was dry my father began to work on it. Whenever my Father went anywhere the family dog would follow him, so of course she followed him while in the cellar she kept trying to dig up one corner of the room (according to my father).

A while later we were discussing the supernatural over dinner and my sister claimed that she recently had a nightmare, I can't remember what specifically happened in the dream but she claimed when she awoke she could not sleep for a long period of time and whenever she closed her eyes she saw visions of a man with an intimidating appearance although she never claimed having a night like this again. Later down the line she did suffer insomnia, I also suffered insomnia while living in the house.

Our attic over 4 years became very cluttered. By then most of the family had moved out it was just my father, little brother and I. I decided to clear the attic rooms up and without trying to sound smug I did a good job. After I presented my work to my father we discussed making the attic my bedroom and I accepted and I moved in quite happily. At the time I was a fan of "Doctor Who" and I kept the door open. On that door I had a picture of one of the "sisters of plenitude" and it seemed to be staring at me. Also, around that time I had been having dreams that consisted of the next days events and I had had some nightmares about the attic. I was highly unnerved. In the end I just freaked out and ran downstairs because I could of sworn that the posters face changed; it may have been my highly active imagination but I rarely went back into the attic.

Throughout the time I lived there people also tried to spend as little time on the ground floor. They claimed it had an unpleasant atmosphere to it, although I must say none of the family were uncomfortable there. In fact we spent much time on that floor.

There was a period where things would go missing and show up again where we had looked. When that happened it always happened for the best. For example, my father had a so called friend who was always annoying him by asking for favors and errands and the friend was always very inconsiderate and rude. One day after he had left his debit card at the house he came back to look for it while my father was in a bad mood. The two of them looked for it and after they couldn't find it my fathers friend went into one and my father just told him to get out and to not "darken the doorway again" the card later showed up in the same place they had looked for it.

My family believes there were ghosts in the house as do the many friends as well, we have since moved out of the house but we believe the ghost was of the lady with the cats she became known as to us the cat lady and I think the ghost considered herself family and she did us no harm. I would actually like an excuse to speak with the new tenants I did not know how much I loved the house until I had left, however I don't know any excuse for the more sinister haunting like the eerie atmosphere in the ground floor or hallways or about the visions my sister gazed upon.

I would like to know your opinions (even if the haunting was uninteresting).