It started with a curious noise outside… I actually thought there may have been an explosion. I stepped outside, with Eik, a trusty Rottweiler I’ve been watching for the past few days courtesy of some friends who are out of town, following directly behind me. Scanning the sky, as well as the rest of the neighborhood for anything strange, we couldn’t seem to find the source of this strange “explosion.” But this would hardly be the end to our strange day… in fact, it was only the beginning!
I went back to work, answering emails and trying to crank out a few more articles (like this one) before a mid-day radio interview promoting the newest book in the Exposed, Uncovered and Declassified series that I’ve contributed to, titled Ghosts and Hauntings: Am I being Haunted? There had been phone calls coming in all day too, in addition to everything else going on, and at the moment in question my father had called to check in about a rendezvous time for an engagement we were attending together later that day. That’s when the sudden, blood-curdling howling began…
“Hold on dad, these dogs are going nuts!” I remember saying, as I rushed back to the bedroom where Eik and his sister, Sammie, were laying on the bed. They weren’t attempting to move otherwise, save for the lonesome howling they were both engaged in. I listened carefully to try and see if there was anything in the distance–perhaps a siren–that the dogs might be able to hear, but there was only silence. What had gotten these guys so stirred up all of a sudden?
I could hear dad laughing over the receiver as I tried to calm the two Rottweilers down, but they weren’t hearing of it. They just lay there another several seconds, howling away like a full moon had sprung up at the window–and then, as suddenly as they had begun, their lonesome cries just stopped.
That’s weird, I thought, and I went about my business, agreeing on a time to meet, and heading back over to my computer desk to try and take care of the rest of the day’s business before my interview.
It was around this time when things got shaky… I didn’t notice it myself, but only minutes later my father called back, very excited as he related to me the startling news: a 5.8 earthquake had struck near Charlottsville, WV, that both he and my brother had felt simultaneously over at my parent’s home. This quake was felt all up and down the east coast, in fact, and I would soon begin receiving calls about the incident from folks in South Carolina and other states nearby that had felt the tremor in their areas. Incidentally, the dogs had started howling only moments before the earthquake struck… had they sensed that the something big was about to occur?
Somewhat perplexed, I mentioned this on my Facebook page, and received several responses about the strange and unique ability pets seem to have when it comes to sensing oncoming earth changes. One user noted the following:
I did notice some strange insect behavior while eating my lunch outside. I saw a grasshopper walking backward disoriented around the time of the quake. More bees then usual were flying around in a hectic manner. Regardless if there was a connection, the animal world is amazing.
Another had this to say about her own canine companions:
Dogs are particularly sensitive, yes! My shepherd / labs do the same thing. They have plenty of opportunities here in California…our animal companions are amazing!
Of course, these sorts of things have been written about in books by authors like my friend Joshua Warren, whose book Pet Ghosts dealt with similar subject matter. Another friend, researcher Brad Steiger, dealt with the idea in his book Psychic Pets. Indeed, animals seem all-too capable of sensing atmospheric and terrestrial phenomena along these lines… had I happened to witness yet another instance of this strange ability, immediately preceding the large Earthquake that struck the United States?
If you have similar stories (especially pertaining to the earthquake that transpired on Tuesday just after 2:00 PM ET), you’re welcome, as always, to share them here in the comments section below.
