Observations placeholder

The Romeo Error – Lyall Watson

Robert Morris of Duke University began his investigations into an allegedly haunted house in Kentucky with a collection of living detectors in the form of a dog, a cat, a rat and a rattle-snake. Each of the animals was taken by its owner into a room in which a murder once occurred. The dog came just two feet into the room and then suddenly snarled at its owner and backed out the door. "No amount of cajoling could prevent the dog from struggling to get out and refusing to re-enter." The cat was carried into the room in its owner's arms and, when it reached the same point, leaped up on to her shoulders and dug in, then jumped to the floor and oriented itself towards an empty chair.

"It spent several minutes hissing and spitting and staring at the unoccupied chair in a corner of the room until it was finally removed."

The rat did absolutely nothing, but the rattlesnake "immediately assumed an attack posture focusing on the same chair".

None of the three responsive animals produced a comparable reaction in any other room of the house.