Browse:Cat (Volume 1, entries 215–219)
Cat
Volume 1, entries 215–219. Source context: SPIRITS → SPIRITS AND ANIMALS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 215
I'll tell you what I have seen - twenty-eight years ago [1908] a cat behind a young woman and the young woman was kin'a intoxicated. There were two sisters. They lived together. One sister had gone out to a party and the other one was all ready to go out. And this one, that hadd't gone yet, waited for her sister to come in. She waited until eleven o'clock. And it was in the summertime. So she said, "Mrs. Duke, will you take my key." - I said, "Yes' - "to give to my sister when she comes, because I have been waiting for her. She hasn't got here yet." So I said "Very well, sure, I'll do that for you." I took the key. And her sister came in about one o'clock at nighttime and was rapping on her sister's door. I was in bed so I holler to her and say, "Emma, '' I said, "I have your key, your sister is out." She said, "Very well." I got right up and opened my door and passed her the key. Meantime, the cat got in behind her. I was trying to move back. I couldn't move [the reason is given later]. She was trying to unlock the door but couldn't. She had a little too much drink in her. I said, "Emma, come on in my house." She said, "No, I am going on in home. The door is a little hard to unlock." She unlocked it and went in. And she said, "Cordelia, there's a cat over here. Is it your cat?" I said, "No, not my cat." She said, "Yes." I said, "No, Emma," like that. I said, "Well, come on in my place." She said, "No, no, I can't do that." So in the meantime she says, "Here goes the cat. It's going out." But I am a little ahead of my story. During the time she was unlocking to get in, this cat got very tired awaiting. And it turned three different colors while she was trying to get in; one was yellow, the other was grey, the other was black - black and white. It didn't worry me about being a spirit. What came over me, I couldn't move. I said, "Couldn't it be the moonshine" - it was nighttime - looking for the moon to see if it was reflecting on the cat. Had it of been the moon I wouldn't have been frightened. After I couldn't get a sight of the moon and couldn't move, I was terribly frightened. And I never moved, couldn't move, until she unlocked the door and the cat went in behind her. Then I went and got into my bed. This was on 115th Street [New York City] where I used to live. I never had the nerve to ask her; but one thing I do know, she never came to her sister's any more. In six months she never came to her sister's house. She stayed around other people's houses further downtown. I said to her sister about the cat, "There's a meaning to that." Her sister said, "Don't mind that. That's only the devil after Emma." That was one sister speaking about the other. I knew is must have been a token. I asked a minister. The minister said, "That cat was the devil shown to you because Emma has all the faith in the world in you. She is not a Christian. It was shown to you for you talk to her because she has lots of faith in you." Six months after that she died.
Entry 216
This story that I am about to tell happened in New York [City] about two years ago [1934]. There was a black cat came to a lady and followed her home. She tried to keep him out. He followed her on into the house. To begin with she intended to get rid of him, but after he stayed for a day and a night, she liked him and she kept him. He was there about four weeks. The woman went away to Chicago to the big fair that was there and she took the cat, she carried it over, to another woman's house to spend the ten days she was away. They took care of him over there. When she came back home, she sent and got this cat and brought it back. This woman's house she carried it to, her brother-in-law was living with her. Three days after the cat was carried back, this woman's brother-in-law - he had heart trouble - that had kept it ten days, started upstairs. He got to the third floor, he lived on the fourth, dropped down with his cigarette in his mouth and died right there. People came up the stairs and found him with the cigarette still in his mouth and had to take it out to keep it from burning him. They took him back up to the apartment and he was buried from there. One week after, the woman that the cat had followed home, she went to work. She didn't work all the time, but this was a special day she went out to do some- thing. She kissed everybody goodby, went downtown to do some little housework. She did what she had to do on the first floor, went up the stairs, got to the top of the stairs, gave one little sigh. Someone came to her and when they got there she could not speak. She died. The black cat was still at her house. They huddled him out from there because no one wanted to see that cat because some people was watching the effects wherever he had been. They took him to another apartment on Grant Avenue. That family was demolished. Trouble came up and they separated. So they got someone to take the cat out in the country and I heard no more of him.
Entry 217
I remember a story of a cat. This was a man who went to a hotel. He put his horse up. Going in the hotel the man told him that, "You go over yonder and stay." He said, "What am I going to pay for the night?" He said, "I'll go to work and give it to you free, if you'll just only stand there for one night." He says, "Well, I'll try it." So he goes over to this house. He had a lantern. He sits it down, set back and commence smoking. In walked a big cat. He walked up along side of him and looked in his face and said, "John, '' he says, "look, John, there's nobody in here but you and I." John looked at the cat. The cat was as large as a young calf. John said, "Listen, in a few minutes there won't be anybody in here but you."
Entry 218
One time a fellow was frying some eggs. He was setting down there cook- ing and looking things over. He heard a voice. He looked around to see where it was at and couldn't find it. So he goes to the stove and something up on top of the chimley said, "I'm gon'a drop." He said, "You can drop all you want, so you don't drop in my pan of slop." Finally, a cat leg fell down the chimley, went in the corner and set down. The fellow looked at it, then at the pan, and something on top of the house said, "I'm gon'a drop." Another leg fell down the chimley and went over there and both got together. When the two legs commenced to get- ting together he said, "It's getting kin'a tight in here. The legs said, "That's nothing. Wait till my body comes down." Something on top of the chimley said, "I'm gon'a drop." That cat's body fell down the chimley. It went over and got with them legs. The fellow look at them again and the pan of slop and said, "It's getting kin'a tight in here." Then they said, "Wait until them front legs get down here." Something said, "I'm gon'a drop." He said, "You can drop all you want to just so you don't drop in the slop." The front legs dropped and went over there and got together. He said, "It's tight in here now sure enough." Then it said, "Yes, but you wait until the head comes down." The man said, "The back legs is here, the body is here, the front legs is here, but when that head gets down I'm gon'a be gone."
Entry 219
A man was tramping and gotten hungry and he stopped by a house, and the woman gave him a pint of meal and told him there was a old cabin further down the road and he could stop there that night, and she said he could build himself a fire and cook this meal. The fire was getting hot - they.made ash cakes in those days. While the fire was getting hot something spoke up the chimley, 'Look out, I'm gon'a fall." Down fell a leg. He picked that up and threw it back behind him. After awhile it cried again, "Look out, I'm gon'a fall." He said, "Fall." He took that leg and threw it behind him. Presently it cried again, "Look out, I'm gon'a fall." He took that arm and threw it back behind him. Presently it said, "Look out, I'm gon'a fall." The other arm fell. He threw that behind him. Then it kin'a cried, "Look out, look out, I'm gon'a fall." The body dropped down. He threw that behind him. He done gone back together. He grabbed this poker and started after him and he run out ran around to the corner of the chimley and went down into a hole. And he dug and came to a pile of money.