Tales of Kentucky Ghosts

7: ANIMAL GHOSTS AND ANIMAL TALES

 7 ANIMAL GHOSTS AND ANIMAL TALES Ghosts That Were Not Ghosts Hopkins County As a child, about sixty-five years ago, we visited my grandparents often. And when we went to see them, always at night some people always came there [to visit]. They would tell all kinds of stories, and one of the ghost stories I will always remember was about sounds and other things. Out in the county, houses were fairly close to one another. So the young men always walked to see their girlfriends along a three- or fourmile road. On this road was an old house back off of the road. It was run-down. The windows were broke, and the doors were not closed. Well, one night this young man was walking by that old house when he heard sounds like someone walking around and up and down the stairs. He looked around and saw white shadows in the door and on the porch. He even saw white shadows in a window. These white things were everywhere! This young man ran all the way home, woke up his father, and told him what he had seen. The father told him to be still, that they would get some men to go with them the next night to see what it was he had seen. So they did. They hid in the bushes, then about 11:00 P.M. some white things came around in the house. They heard footsteps also. They didn’t know what to think, but to their surprise these white things that had always been seen and heard by many [local people] were nothing more than white goats! They had a good time laughing. Evelyn Joines, location unspecified, February 14, 1992. Courtesy of Folklife Archives at Kentucky Library, John Morgan Collection, Western Kentucky University 112 Tales of Kentucky Ghosts Disappearing Dog Ghost Adair County Our old family doctor, Dr. Simmons, rode a horse all the time when going to see his patients. He always said that as he passed a cemetery at Highpoint, a little white dog would run out and follow him along the highway for a short distance, then just disappear. This dog would do that during the day, or at nighttime. He said he didn’t pay much mind to it when it first started happening, but it just kept on and on. It would come out and run along after his horse, then just disappear in midair right in front of his eyes. James Keltner, as told to Glenn E. Groebli, Columbia, 1971. Courtesy of Folklife Archives at Kentucky Library, Western Kentucky University Ghostly White Fox Larue County This story was used by my grandmother to scare her children into going to bed, or keeping them there after they had been told to go to bed. The story goes like this: One day my grandfather was out hunting and came upon a solid white fox. He shot at it but missed many times, but couldn’t believe it because he was shooting right at it. After a few days, he saw it right behind the house and killed it, the reason being that it was a threat to the chickens and other farm animals. After he killed it, he knew it would be gone and the other animals would be alright. A few days after the death of the fox, a cow had been killed by some sort of wild animal resembling a fox. That was the first clue to the ghost of the white fox. The second was when my grandmother got up one night to get a drink, she saw the fox run through the living room and into the kitchen. This moved her very much, so she hustled back to the bedroom to tell what had happened. That happened a couple of other times, but only after the hour of midnight. So this was used to keep the children to bed, but she saw it one night herself. ANIMAL GHOSTS AND ANIMAL TALES 113 Even when I stay with my grandmother, I will not get out of bed after midnight. Mrs. W. E. Reed, as told to Bev Vance, Hodgenville, 1970. Courtesy of Folklife Archives at Kentucky Library, Western Kentucky University Reincarnated as an Eagle Logan County This guy was in the service, and he was always kind and generous, but his wife was mean and selfish. And so before he...