explain this one

Well, waddyaknow!  I did manage one more post in 2025 after all.

Just to bring you up to speed, I've been really rather unwell.  Still am if truth be told but while lying awake at 1am on 30 December, unable to sleep due to a permanent cough I figured I might as well do something useful so here we are.

Anyway, this cough has been a constant companion for over three weeks now.  It is horrible, with phlegm so thick and sticky I'm pretty sure you could use it to adhere ceiling tiles.  And more than one ceiling as well as there appears to be an endless supply of it.

But, this isn't about my perilous health condition right now.  Instead I want to tell you all about a really strange experience I had one night just before Christmas.  

At around 5am I needed to go into the kitchen to get some water, and anxious not to wake Lisa up I didn't put the bedroom light on.  I got to the kitchen, drank a glass of water and pootled about for ten minutes or so before heading back to bed.  In the dark.

Now, we have two border terriers - Dexter and Douglas, both of whom sleep in our bedroom. Dexter usually on the bed and Douglas in the space between the bed and a radiator.  When I left to get some water, I could feel Douglas just under my feet and could also feel and just about see even Dexter on the bed.

And when I returned to my bedroom, I was of course extremely careful not to fall over one of them if they'd woken up and moved while I was up, and sure enough I felt either Dexter or Doug brush against my lower leg.

Or did I?

You see, Dexter was still fast asleep on the bed, and Doug was still very much in the same state and position near the radiator.  So, what had I felt.

When I first moved into this house way back in 1993, I had a cat - Charlie; an enormous ginger tom who was about the same size as our dogs.  He died in around 2004, and I still miss him to this day.  I've often "seen" Charlie around the house in the shape of a tail disappearing around a doorway, a shadow in the nighttime or a feline shape leaping onto some surface or another from the corner of my eye.  It's just me though; well, we'll come on to that - and no one else in the house experiences this, but then they didn't have the bond that Charlie and I had.

But I believe the dogs see him.  I've often caught both of them simultaneously staring at something and barking, growling or crying before just stopping, and then wandering off to investigate, looking confused on their return.  

I don't believe in the paranormal, but I do believe that energy can exist long after death and it is that which my boys and I are seeing.  But feeling?  It was so "real" that I had to double and triple check that the terriers were still unmoved.

I tried to rationalise what had happened.  A fever maybe - nope.  Over tired of course as I'd not slept properly in weeks.  But again, no - I was wide awake and fully aware of my surroundings.

I don't think I'll ever be able to explain what happened that night, but it has left me with a very warm feeling that Charlie was still looking out for me after all these years

 Happy New Year everyone!