LIVE EVENT _ Saturday, Oct. 31- Hear about Local MD Paranormal Cases; 1pm EDT

 On Sat. Oct. 31 at 1 p.m. ET Westminster Branch Library presents a Lecture on "Cases from Inspired Ghost Tracking" with  Rob Gutro and Margaret Ehrilich, IGT manager.  

 WATCH:   https://ccpl.librarymarket.com/events/paranormal-casebook-maryland

Kuzco Sends Dan a Photo Hello from Spirit

My friend Dan volunteers at  a shelter and was enamored with a little dog, who wound up being fostered in another home.Kuzco since passed, but bonded with Dan during their time at the shelter. Recently, Dan got a big surprise with Kuzco's face showed up oddly on social media. Here's the story from Dan: 

Rob, this is my story about the sign from Kuzco. After my little boy Romeo transitioned in August of 2019, I started to volunteer at Humane Indiana Shelter in Munster, Indiana. There, I befriended a dog named Kuzco who was surrendered by his family after 5 yrs and unfortunately was heartworm positive. 

I spent about 2-3 hrs a day twice a week with him. I fed him all sorts of treats and took him on walks and gave him many belly rubs. We would just sit on the grass where he would love to watch cars drive by. 

When Covid-19 hit in late March, the shelter had to close. At that point, I had the option to foster him. I opted to let another family foster him that way he would not be alone while I was at work. The foster family had kids and the mom home all day. Unfortunately, his heart worm caused his heart to go into failure and unfortunately they had to help him cross over the rainbow 🌈 bridge 🌉. That happened in April of 2020. 

 The only thing that I have from him is his memory, videos and pictures of him and I, and also his hair that I plucked from my cloth gloves and hat. 

**This is Where Kuzco Gave Dan a Sign**

Dan said:  The humane shelter posted a video on Facebook of the remodeling of the kennels before and after. On the post on Facebook the still image on the video was that of Kuzco and he doesn’t appear on the video until 1:46 second mark. So my question now, is this a sign to me from Kuzco?

Why It's a Sign

I told Dan:  Yes, the freeze-frame image of Kuzco is a sign to Dan. The reason is that his image appears in the MIDDLE of the video, and only for a short time, so the chances of his little face appearing in a still frame are slim to none. Yet, there he was. That's because he made it happen so Dan would know Kuzco is very much around him. 

Thanks to all for Notes after our dog Dolly's Passing

Thank you for your notes and emails after our Weimaraner Dolly's quick passing on Oct. 22nd. The outpouring of support and care means so, so much to us during this time. We lost 2 teenage furkids within 5 months this year as Franklin also passed on May 8.

Our other dogs, Tyler and Dash, witnessed her passing which made it easier for them to understand, and Tyler knew she was failing over the last 6 months.

Our friend Margaret Perry Ehrlich (who also manages the Inspired Ghost Tracking group ) sent is this beautiful image she created with our dogs Dash and Tyler on the ground (because they are still with us), and our 4 dogs in the afterlife: Franklin, Dolly, Sprite and Buzz.

We were fortunate to have Dolly and Franklin so long as they outlived most of their breeds, although both battled a number of health issues. Thank you again for your kind words and support.

Paranormal Q and A: What other types of paranormal or mystical activity do you think is possible?

A portal Credit: GIPHY.com

Paranormal Q and A: Each week, I'll answer a question about the paranormal, whether a general question, or one about human or animal ghosts (Earthbound) or spirits (crossed over). Here's this week's question:

QUESTION: What other types of paranormal or mystical activity do you think is possible? 

 ANSWER: Anything is possible when it comes to the paranormal, because it means "beyond what is normal." I've run into portals, which are doorways that open between the spirit world and ours, and other portals (energy doorways) that help a ghost move from one place to another on Earth (because they can't cross over). Time travel comes to mind and it's something we currently think of as "paranormal" or science fiction.

Salt Tower in the Tower of London

You can read about my experience running into an energy portal in the Salt Tower of the Tower of London. That story is in my book "Ghosts of England on a Medium's Vacation." 

 Placing bad energy on someone or something (sometimes called a curse) has been around for centuries, and there's some truth to it. There's so many more possibilities!

For Rob Gutro's 6 books on the paranormal, visit: www.amazon.com. All of Rob's books were written to help explain the paranormal, and teach readers how to find signs from spirit.

New Lecture Video! Westminster Library hosts Rob Gutro, talking about How Pets Communicate from the Afterlife

On Oct. 24, 2020 the Carroll County Public Library System in Westminster, MD presented "Pets and the Afterlife"

Speaker: Rob Gutro, Author, Medium, scientist, dog dad Description Learn how pets in spirit have the ability to send signals to the living and wait for us in the afterlife. Rob Gutro, medium, paranormal investigator, scientist, and author of Pets and the Afterlife - How They Communicate from the Other Side and More and Pets and the Afterlife 2: Stories of Signs from Pets That Passed will discuss how to cope with grief after losing a beloved pet. He will identify the signs they give us and the science behind why living pets can sense entities. By the end of the talk, you will be able to find the signs from your pets in spirit. Rob's website: www.petspirits.com

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/pf7XEkw43R0 

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Ghost Town: Gay City, Hebron, Connecticut: Alcoholics, Grisly Murders, Ghosts, Uphill Flowing Water

Gay City Park, CT. Cr: http://www.ctmq.org/gay-city-trails/

Today's blog features a ghost town that has a number of reported hauntings and a a place where water
runs uphill. It's got quite a history, too. Founded in 1796 by a group of Methodists, they were known for pairing their religion with a generous amount of alcohol, believing that heavy drinking and intoxication would bring them closer to God. That led to a lot of things... including grisly murders.
   Gay City is a part of the town of Hebron in central Connecticut. The ruins are now Gay City State Park/ The park includes streams, a pond, over 1,500 acres of woods with hiking trails, ruins of old mills and stone foundations and ghosts. The original city was named after John Gay, one of the settlement’s founding fathers. 

Several grisly, unsolved murders, along with a large fire at the textile mill, which served as the largest employer, led to Gay City’s gradual abandonment. 

Gay City Park, CT. Credit; Damned Connecticut

According to the blog Damned Connecticut, "The town was originally settled in 1796, when Elijah Andrus led a group of persecuted Methodists out of Hartford to a quieter space along the Blackledge River where they hoped they would be left alone by the regional Congregationalists to live and worship as they pleased. Under the guidance of Rev. Henry Sumner, the faithful—including many members of the Gay family—attended services twice a week, which included imbibing generous amounts of “spirits” in the hope of finding higher spirits.

Apparently, such dedicated alcohol consumption caused a host of social issues, but the settlement continued to thrive.

 In 1811, a textile mill was built, and soon other mills, shops, homes and even a distillery followed. The town was soon known as Factory Hollow, and had its ups and downs over the next few decades—the main mill burned down twice, the second time in 1885, and the town never really recovered.

UPHILL RUNNING WATER
 According to one story from the Bolton Historical Society, it was claimed that the water in the settlement “ran uphill” from the pond to the mill, which spooked a few residents.

MURDERS IN THE TOWN
 Factory Hollow also suffered other problems, including two alleged murders, both of which pre-date the Civil War. According to David Philips’ Legendary Connecticut, the first one involved a jewelry peddler, who may have been robbed and murdered by the village charcoal-burner, although the actual perpetrator was never brought to justice; the unfortunate merchant’s skeleton was discovered in a charcoal pit near the edge of town, damning evidence for some.

The second untimely death involved a blacksmith’s apprentice—the story goes that the young lad showed up late to ye olde shoppe one day and ye olde blacksmithee took extreme exception, stabbing the tardy assistant to death, and then beheading him.   As with the other murder, no records exist of the crime, no was anyone apparently ever arrested for it.

THE TOWN ABANDONED, BECOMES A PARK
By the end of the 19th century, the town was essentially abandoned, and then was slowly swallowed up by the surrounding countryside. Finally, the land was sold by Emma Foster (one of the last descendants of those who lived there) to the state in 1943, with the stipulation that the area be renamed Gay City. A year later, Gay City officially became a state park.

GHOSTS 
For years, visitors supposedly saw the spirits of the murdered victims wandering around the forests that have now grown up through the village. In 2010, a teenager drown in the pond. 

I'm Shattered: Our Weimaraner Dolly Passes on Oct. 22

Yesterday, Oct. 22, 2020 was another tough day in our family. We had to help our Weimaraner, Dolly, cross over and out of pain and it all came on overnight. I'm devastated, empty and heartbroken. *Please Understand I am deep in grief right now and I'm not up for doing readings. I need to process my grief.**

Dolly and I were very in sync- we always knew what the other were thinking. I have such a deep emptiness (especially after our other Franklin passed 5 months ago). 

(Photo right is from 6-24-20 and that's the way I'll remember her)

A disc slipped in Dolly's lower spine on Oct. 21, suddenly rendering her back legs useless. On Oct. 22, Tom, Tyler, Dash  and I spent the morning with Dolly (who couldn't get out of her bed) on the sunporch (see pictures). We had a vet come to the house in the early afternoon to help her pass out of pain and misery. 

OCTOBER 20-21 IT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT - On Oct. 20th, Dolly went to bed as usual on her orthopedic bed.

  On the morning of Wed., Oct. 21, when Dolly awoke, she suddenly couldn't get up from her bed! I thought what happened?  I had to lift her (she's 68 lbs.) and carry her outside to clean her off and remove her soiled diaper (she almost always did #1 and 2 in the diaper overnight but it didn't always catch everything). There's always clean up involved for her and the floor, and the cloth diaper that held the disposable on her, and I could tell she always felt badly about it. 

   That morning outside, though, Dolly just stood (shakily) staring at the backyard light as I washed her backside, and then her back legs buckled again. I got her to rest in the grass while I went inside and quickly grabbed the second clean cloth diaper, and put a (human-grade) incontinence liner in it. I quickly stripped the bed that was messed, and replaced the cover and blanket and put her on it. (then I handwashed all the soiled stuff), 

   Later in the morning, she couldn't get up again, so I carried her outside. At least she was able to do #1. Not so by the afternoon. It was apparent the disc was slipping more and quickly, because by 3 p.m. she couldn't even move from her bed. . 

WEDNESDAY OCT 21 -The dogs always love to accompany us on the drive so, we lifted Dolly, Tyler and Dash into the pickup's back seat/bench covered with a comforter. Dolly was content and didn't move the entire time. Once home, her legs wouldn't support her at all and she couldn't even pee. The disc was apparently affecting her entire backside.. I carried her outside again at 10pm to try and do something but she couldn't. Tom and I were even both holding her up. 

   I quickly realized that it was a disc and felt a bulge on her spine behind her tail. It was exactly what happened to Franklin, but he was in pain. Fortunately, Dolly was on pain meds and they were adequate. I also knew that at almost 16 years old, and with air pockets in her lungs she couldn't be operated on. She was frustrated, miserable, and worn out. I knew we had to make the dreaded decision. 

PEACEFUL PASSINGS - Our friend Shelley, who is also a dog rescuer, messaged me that evening about Dolly's status. I told her Tom and I talked about it, and knew it was time. Dolly couldn't get up or move around. Shelley told me about a Baltimore/Annapolis service called "Peaceful passings" where a veterinarian comes to your house to help your dog cross over. Most vets won't do that, so this service contracts with local doctors to allow for it. I placed the call at 8pm (of course they were closed),but they called me back at 7 am on Thursday the 22nd. I arranged everything for the afternoon, so Tyler, Dash, Tom and I could spend time with Dolly (even though she slept 95% of the time).

WEDNESDAY NIGHT SLEEPING IN THE KITCHEN WITH DOLLY - Every night since Franklin passed, Dolly had difficulty sleeping So, I slept on the kitchen floor until she fell asleep each night. Wednesday night, Tyler (our youngest Dachshund) and I stayed together next to Dolly the entire night. Dolly awoke about once an hour, and at one point I had to move her to her right side (she starts out laying on her left) because of the arthritic pain in her hips. 

THURSDAY, OCT 22 

EARLY MORNING VISITORS - At around 3 am, Dolly lifted her head high and stared at the door to the Laundry room and den. She wouldn't move despite my attempts to get her to lay back down. Finally, I turned and looked at the door. I was surprised. There were the spirits of my mom and dad, our friend Ed, Franklin, Buzz and Sprite all standing there waiting for Dolly to cross over. I knew it was the right thing to do. 

THURSDAY, OCT 22, THE LAST DAY - When we got up at 5:30 a.m. and she had messed in her diaper. We carried her outside and she wasn't physically able do anything anymore. The bladder muscles were not working.  I cleaned her off outside, carried her back in and we put on a clean cloth diaper and large incontinence pad. She was miserable. She couldn't move her back legs or her butt.  She was moaning and wouldn't eat - except finally one lone chicken treat and some water. Her paws even felt cold. She stared into space and didn't acknowledge me much. 

Our family all stayed in the sunporch with Dolly all morning. For the most part (thanks to a pain pill I gave her at 5:30 a.m.) she was resting comfortably. She was very patient (always has been). The vet came in the early afternoon to help Dolly crossover on a blanket in the backyard, surrounded by me, Tom, Tyler and Dash. 

FINAL THOUGHTS - I can only take comfort in knowing her decline was in 1 day. 12 days before on Oct. 10th, she found the strength to walk around the entire block. 9 days before on Oct. 13, Dolly did agility in the living room after dinner with the two boys for about 20 minutes and sometimes she led the way again, despite having only about 20% of her vision! 2 days before the 22nd, on Oct. 20, she walked around the backyard doing "Stop" and "Come" for treats. Dolly has shown her drive: "Life is what you make it, and I believe in not sitting around feeling sorry for myself just because I have bad arthritis and my vision is next to nothing. I hope I'm an inspiration to everyone, people and doggies, to try and do anything!"

Your Pet's Spirit is Giving you Signs! Learn of them in "Pets and the Afterlife"

Are you grieving after the loss of your dog or cat?  These books can help you work through your grief by showing you how their spirits are still very much around. 

The love we share with our pets never dies, and there's proof that our pets do communicate with us from the other side, just as people do who pass. I'm a scientist, medium, author and paranormal investigator who has had many experiences with ghosts and spirits, both pets and people, who have communicated messages that helped prove their identity. I've written Pets and the Afterlife and Pets and the Afterlife 2 to teach people how to recognize the signs from their pets in spirit. 

Pet parents like me think about and mourn the loss of their pets often. Sometimes the grief feels inconsolable. One way to work through that grief is to understand that our pets are around us in spirit from time to time and visit us. You just need to be able to recognize those signs. In my two books I explain many of the ways that pets communicate with the living, to convey their presence. 
   
I've received emails from people around the world who have confirmed signs from their pets and have received comfort knowing their pets are very much around in spirit from time to time. 

Both are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.: https://tinyurl.com/y8l6alq4 

Q&A: Sweet Scent Is Late Husband's Approval

Spirits can give us approvals in many ways. Sometimes after a loved one passes and we don't

know what kinds of services or practice they wanted, we make decisions and hope for the best. In this case, a young widow made a choice after the sudden passing of her husband and hoped he approved. He sent a sweet smell to let her know he does. Here is the exchange: 

QUESTION:  Hi, my husband was only 47 and he just passed away in October. I decided to cremated him but I Don't know if he wanted that I have his ashes at home in our room where he passed, but I only got a strong sweet incense type smell a couple days after he died.

I didn't get any more signs, and I don't know if he is very disappointed on me because I'm being in somehow peaceful state that I don't understand. I want the best for him, and I don't know if keeping him at home is maybe bother him. I also felt signs in my home before he passed and I thought there was another energy in the house.

Please help protect my husband. What is the best for him to be truly free and in peace. I LOVE HIM

ANSWER:  The sweet smell you experienced was your husband's approval of having him cremated. He's well in the afterlife and around you, protecting you and keeping you safe. The feelings of his presence in the house confirm that he is very much around you and looking over you from the other side.

Spirits can convey their presence with scents and do so all the time. You may smell your mother's perfume, or your grandmother's peanut butter cookies whenever they visit in spirit. You may smell your grandfather's cologne or a cigarette or cigar when no one is around. 

For more questions and answers about the Paranormal, read Rob Gutro's book  "Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead" available on Amazon.com

Duxbury< Mass. Tavern Has Some Ghostly Guests

Old taverns, especially in New England often have residual energy impressed within its walls

that give people a sense of who lived there, or they have intelligent haunts, that is, an actual ghost that can interact with the living.  In the case of this old tavern in Duxbury, Massachusetts (near Cape Cod), there are three ghosts!  Here is the story from the Patriot Ledger newspaper:

The Duxbury restaurant is said to be haunted by three friendly ghosts

Patriot Ledger Newspaper, Quincy, MA Oct 2020

DUXBURY — The Sun Tavern, a cozy haunt on a quiet stretch of road in Duxbury isn’t just known for its steaks, lamb or calamari, it’s also home to some supernatural guests.

The restaurant, operated out of a colonial-era home, is said to be home to at least three spirits, Lysander Walker, a recluse who shot himself in the sitting room on Oct. 3, 1928, and Mary and Elizabeth Williamson, two little girls who died of scarlet fever in the house in the 1700s, according to the Tavern’s current owner, Gary James.

A Boston Herald article from 1928, uncharitably dubbing him the “Last Duxbury Hermit,” details how Walker was found dead by an 11-year-old-girl who lived across the street, according to the book “Stopping Places: Along Duxbury Roads” by Margery MacMillan. Walker had apparently been distraught over the death of his wife and took his own life.

A few years after Walker’s death, in the early ’30s, the home became a restaurant.

James, who took over the restaurant in 2017 from Larry and Carol Friedman, said he has had at least one encounter that may have been Walker.

“I was standing out back behind the restaurant with Larry talking and I see this shadow approaching us and then take off,” James said. “I thought it was somebody trying to break into cars.”

James said he and Friedman looked around for someone to no avail, Friedman chalked it up to a visit by Walker, whose death certificate hangs in the restaurant.

James said as recently as a few weeks ago a server thought she saw a man sitting at one of the restaurant’s tables, but the restaurant was closed, and other staff said there was no one there.

Larry Friedman, who still owns the property and previously owned the restaurant in two different stints, said he’s had quite a few creepy encounters.

He said when he was first taking the restaurant over in 1996, the basement was flooded. In order to get the electricity in the building working again, he had to rid the basement of water.

In the process of drying out the basement, Friedman said he was down there in waders, using a generator to operate temporary lights and a sump pump to suck the water out, with his wife and brother-in-law just outside.

“All of a sudden, the light goes off, generator stops, water stops. And I’m yelling up through the window...Not a word. I don’t hear a word out of them,” Larry Friedman said. “Suddenly I feel these arms around me. To this day, I tell this story, it wigs me out.”

Friedman said he couldn’t see anything when the lights went out. He said the lights came on moments later and he started yelling to his brother-in-law who swore the generator never stopped.

Friedman said he had always been resistant to different paranormal investigators or groups coming in not wanting to upset the spirits, but in his second stint owning the restaurant starting in 2009, he was finally convinced to let a few people in who while there made an audio recording.

Friedman said the girls seem to mostly haunt the upstairs where they apparently died. The bathrooms and an office now occupy the second floor of the building.“They went down to the basement, and the basement is a trip in itself. It’s an old basement, it’s an old stone wall. Most of the staff won’t go down there,” Larry Friedman said. “But they did a recording down there, and they heard a very young girl’s voice saying, ‘Larry’s coming. Larry’s coming,’ which is mind-blowing. And then, a man’s voice, an older voice saying, ‘Get out.’ I’m guessing that was Lysander.”

Even the most skeptical staff seem to find themselves believing in spirits after working there.

James and Friedman each separately told a story about a choking diner who seemed to get a helping hand from an apparition that happened three or four years ago.

“One busy Saturday my bartender starts screaming. ‘Larry! Larry!’... I run up to the bar and there’s a man choking,” Larry Friedman said. “I was just about to give him the Heimlich Maneuver, when he spit out his food. ... He turns around to me and says, ‘Thank you.’ I said, ‘I didn’t even get to touch you.’ He turns to the woman next to him and says, ‘Thank you.’ And she said, ‘No one touched you.’ He said, ‘Someone hit me on my back.’”

The restaurant has had several names over the years, but the spirits seem to be a constant.

Selden Tearse whose mother Peyton Wells and late-father David Wells owned the restaurant from 1964 to 1973 said her father used to tell stories of spirits there. Tearse said her father would blow the candles out at night and leave them in one part of the restaurant only to find that they had moved the next morning. During the Wells’ tenure owning the restaurant, the alarm went off one night, and police came to investigate. Hearing footsteps, the police went in, guns drawn, but found no one, according to MacMillan’s book.

But, never the diner should worry, Friedman said it appears that despite, the spookiness, these seem to be friendly ghosts.

“You know, I was not a believer when I first bought the restaurant. I’d heard stories. I really didn’t believe any of them, so I completely put it out of my mind,” Friedman said. “I think Lysander Walker and the two girls are very friendly. I know they’re happy the building’s occupied and things are going on.”

Joe Difazio can be reached at jdifazio@patriotledger.com