Your True Tales
June 2004 – Page 8

Phantom Dog
by Jim

My wife and I had recently moved into an old Victorian house sometime in 1983. The house had fine woodwork and floors of oak and white pine. The woodwork on the front door had deep scratches in it from a large dog that had lived there with earlier residents. The mail carrier had told me that the dog always tried to break through the front door when he was delivering mail. We also had a dog - a miniature schnauzer.

When we went to bed, I usually heard the dog's toe nails on the wooden stairway coming up to jump on the foot of our bed to sleep with us. Eventually, I barricaded the entrance to the basement stairway to keep the dog downstairs at night. One night, shortly after we had retired, I heard dog toe nails coming up the steps, only this time the noise was loud and lumbering instead of the usual fast clicking noises the schnauzer always made. I flew out of bed and went to the hallway to turn on the light. Nothing was there. I quickly went downstairs to the other end of the house where the basement stairway was. The barricade was still up and the dog was quietly sleeping on the other side.

As I returned to go upstairs back to bed, I noticed the old scratches on the front door. I got a chilly feeling, although this event never happened again. This was among other strange events that occurred. One night, home alone, I saw an old pocket door slide into and out of the wall by itself - I about took the hinges of the front door making my exit! Other things happened, but these were the strangest.

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