145 thoughts on “There’s a demon in our house. Or a bug. Maybe both.

Read comments below or add one.

  1. I once had a dog who kept staring and growling at the light fixture in the basement. It wasn’t until years later we discovered that one of the previous homeowners had hung himself there. Ghost of cats past? Get some sage – stat!

  2. This was my husband’s chat to me when I got back to my desk about a half hour ago:

    Him: “Ferris Mewler is scaring Jenny with his behavior – acting like one of those animals in horror movies that sees the ghost/demon/whatever when no one else can.”
    Him: “If it’s a big sphere of electrical energy that suddenly appeared, it means a Terminator is arriving from the future. Just my two cents.”
    Me: “You should comment that”

    He didn’t, so I am.

    Glad you’re still alive. Please stay that way. And tell Ferris to stop punking you. No matter what Victor promised him it isn’t worth it. See: Victor is always wrong.

  3. On a side note, can I just say I love your kitchen? Not the demon of course, but the kitchen is great! So is the cat…

  4. Demons usually type everything out in reverse Latin so I wouldn’t worry.

  5. Cats definitely have an “in” with the spirit world. Or maybe nine, since they get to enter it so many times. Coincidentally, I wrote about cats from other realities this week.

  6. Maybe it’s exercise for cats. Like a reverse plank move, where he’s working on core ab muscles. 😜

  7. Shortly after moving to Santa Cruz, my cat started to growl at the back door. I packed a bag and left for the night!

  8. Last night’s live Twitter coverage was better than anything on TV. And this picture is priceless…looks like something right out of a horror movie. Never knew anyone named Ferris could be sooooo creepy. Bravo!

  9. Wow. That was very cool. I have dogs that are constantly barking at nothing so I am no longer alarmed by random pet alerts. On another note (and I’ll bet 50 of your followers have already come up with this one), I’m thinking if I someday get another dog I would like to name it Bob Barker in homage to Ferris Mewler. I’ll let you know when that happens. Please enjoy today’s blog post: my take on transgender bathrooms. 🙂

  10. Ok, not making jokes here but how old is Ferris? Senior cats sometimes veg out like that – kitty senility. Our 15 year old cat will just kind of stop in his tracks staring at…??? Nothing??? It’s unnerving sometimes!

    (He’s only six so I don’t think so. Who can tell with cats, though. ~ Jenny)

  11. our first corgi, pembroke, used to stare up the steps to the attic, but only when i was home alone. creeped me right the fuck out. lucy, our current corgi, lays and stares for hours at the bookcase. i attribute that to good taste, though, as it’s the one where i keep my signed books.

  12. The time to worry is when Ferris Mewler’s head starts to spin and your kitchen is suddenly awash in projectile vomit. Otherwise, chalk it up to cat pranks.

  13. That looks like a very good excuse to order in for the next month or so. I wouldn’t be cooking in there – you never know what a demon will drip into your casserole.

  14. Didn’t read all the comments, but want to say what a GORGEOUS photo that is. I’d print and frame that sucker now!

  15. Yep, you had me freaked out last night. I’m never letting the kittens look at the ceiling again, although I confess in my house it’s always just been a bug my old lady eyes are too poor to see. For some reason they always like the teeny tiny bugs that are way out of their reach.

  16. Do NOT click on the link #17 posted. Unless, of course, you like the sh*t scared out of you. For the love of jeebus. Lights on always.

  17. That shot looks like your cat is about to be beamed up to the mother ship:). Are you sure it’s not an alien who has just been observing you for research?

  18. our house is filled with cat ghosts. They jump up on the bed at night, and you can feel them, but if you turn on the light there is nothing there. This might also be a side effect of medication. The ghost cats like to run up and down the stairs, and to knock shit over. The living cats don’t seem to mind them, though in her later years, Blinky would stare into the corner of the dining room intently. We believe she was receiving messages from the beyond.

  19. There’s something kind of majestic about this picture. He looks so regal. Too bad it’s because he’s investigating a demon. I hope you didn’t die. Or get possessed. I don’t know which is worse.

  20. Our cat regularly stares down one floor grate, there was a mouse once and now I think she does it cuz’ she remembers the good time she had and hopes for more!

  21. My cat Arlo does that all the time except when he stands up he holds one paw up as if to say “Yes, I hear you”. He can stay that way for a very long time. When I pass him in the hallway in his alert mode I say “tell them I said hi, Arlo”. His ears will twitch. He has beautiful icy blue eyes that are, unfortunately, wall-eyed – which only adds to the Twilight Zone effect. Later he will saunter into the living room for a belly rub and a cat treat. Cats are just too weird – which is why I like them.

  22. Your and Ferris’s adventure on Twitter kept me giggling for half the evening. Well, and fearing for your safety, of course. But mostly giggling.

  23. Yesterday was a totally crap day. Got up and right after the live 24/kitten cam I watch (seriously, check out tinykittens.com and look for their livestream feeds of rescued feral cats and kittens), this was the first thing I have read. Today is gonna be a much, much better day. Better than yours, anyway, I understand exorcisms make a big mess.

  24. This is the best cat photo ever…great shot!
    And not to worry, it was really just the angels talking to him. They talk to my cat too sometimes!

  25. My dog is always running to the door when there’s no one there. It freaks me out, especially when he suddenly jumps off the bed and runs downstairs to stare out the door. But he’s an alcoholic psychic, so who knows?

  26. I always hated when my cat Spencer would look past me like there was some kind of demon behind me and I would be afraid to turn around..if it was a bug, he would just look the other way…he was of no help whatsoever…

  27. On a separate but sort of related note, relieved to hear that Victor’s cholera/typhus/bathroomwater skineating plague is cured.

  28. Okay, so unless a demon took over and is still blogging and Tweeting as you and doing all the things YOU normally do, then you made it through the night. How’s Ferris?

  29. Holy shitballs Batman! It was looking like you guys were screwed….NO…I mean Royally Fucked. Good thing you woke up this morning and your dog wasn’t dead…or cat..or…

  30. I had a cat who would duck every time she walked under the ceiling fan. It wasn’t turned on, most of the time… in fact, it never really bothered her when it was on. You could count on it every time she walked through the room.
    Maybe I should say have/had that cat. She’s still around, although we had to put her down in February. My roomate still sees her frequently. Wish I did, I miss her.

  31. My brother had a dog that exhibited similar behavior, plus running back and forth in the living room. Turned out to be bats — he could hear them when they were in motion, Luckily the exterminator got them out before the dog wore a hole in the floor!

  32. I had a cat (Snaggletooth) who used to sit in the corner of the apartment and stare up at the TV. I thought he was just AMAZED at Xena Warrior Princess, until I saw a mouse tail hanging out of a hole in the ceiling above the entertainment center. Because I’m an idiot, and we lived (as it turns out) in a shithole.

    Also? That pic convinced me Ferris is completely ready for his Broadway debut.

  33. My dogs do crap like this all the time, especially when I’m home alone. Who knows what they’re hearing? I think it’s June bugs banging into our doors. Or a demon. Or they’re trying to get me to get up and feed them. Again.

  34. Sometimes my sister’s dog will look over his shoulder at about 3/4th of the way up a wall and then swivel his head back, at the same height, while continuing to follow whomever he’s following. We are convinced he can see ‘things’ because he’s a strange animal to begin with. Once, when I was house sitting one of my sister’s neighbors’ dog, I brought her dog over. I lost track of him at one point and found him in their office, staring up at a pile of papers. Later I asked my sister why he did that and she replied, “He knows they don’t belong there. He does it in my place whenever I move something around.” On days I have a lot of aches and pains from all my surgeries, he will sit at my feet and stare up at me. My sister says it’s because he knows I’m having a rough day. ALRIGHTY THEN.

  35. The salt thing is totally true. I used to have Holy Salt that was blessed by a priest. I didn’t know what to do with it so I cooked with it, but I would also sprinkle it around my house.

  36. Jealous of Maverick the Skippy Duck and Wild E. Bobcat and other uncivilized pet adoptions? Got to get your attention SOMEHOW, lady!

  37. You are so awesome… loved every moment of that post – and, thanks to listening to BOTH of your audio books (you’re welcome – because they cost more than the print version) I read all of your posts in your very own voice!

  38. I think it’s kind of demonic when animals stand up like that, like those freaky meerkats. Ferris may or may not be a demon. Put some sage in his catnip to be on the safe side.

  39. Wow, nice kitchen! Can we trade, please? Or maybe you can just donate the Shining twins to me.

  40. Demons have tell-tale misspellings. Such as, “ur” for Your. “C” for See. Using the number eight to make words such as, Hate spelled “H8” or skate “SK8” If you see any of these tell tale signs please throw a dictionary at said person, 4 times, then chant,
    “Once upon a time a little HEIR

    Lived inside of the word THEIR.

    When he was joined by other HEIRS

    The things they owned became all THEIRS.

    Until the demon is exorcised.

    You’re Welcome.

  41. My cat Toad had some major hoodoo. My dad swore that Toad was responsible for his being violently ill after he’d been a jerk to me, more than once. And the look he gave my roommate and I when we were joking about having alibis for when the house of someone who’d harmed me burned down gave us both the willies.

    One morning I was woken up by him growling his head off. There was nothing in my room. Nothing, and he was doing his full ears back, eyes rolled back in his head, Siamese spawn of Saran howls. My other cat and I were both freaking the hell out, because neither of us could see anything. I even looked over the top of his head between his ears because I remembered a superstition that if there was a ghost you could see it that way. Nothing. He finally stopped. I told me dad later, and it turned out to have been at about the time of my grandfather’s funeral that I was missing, and my dad said he’d also had a weird moment that morning that he felt was my grandfather coming to say goodbye. Toad liked my grandfather but he was very protective of me and I guess he wasn’t having any of his ghost. He was an amazing cat and I miss him every day.

  42. The whole thing last night freaked me out a bit. Especially when he stood up meerkat style

  43. Here’s a segment called “Things that I have said to my husband in the past 24 hours”:
    If we didn’t have a cat, I probably wouldn’t believe in ghosts.

  44. Ferris Mewler looks like he’s getting beamed up into the light! Okay, now I’m off to read the whole story.

  45. My cat Luna does that when I fly, moth, anything moving is in the light shade. Which happens often. Freaky on the kitchen counter though. Great photo.

  46. There are corners of our living room and a place near the stairs that make our cats react similarly. We assume ghosts.

  47. When my cat did that it turned out there was a possum living in my attic. Sort of similar to a demon, I guess.

  48. I read all these texts first thing this morning, in bed right after I’d woken up. Couldn’t work out if I was awake or still asleep having the weirdest dream.

    It was epic. 10/10, would get freaked out by Ferris Mewler again.

  49. Every now and then, our cat used to stare at the wall at the end of the hallway. if you stood in front of her, she would move her head so she could see it again. Freaky. When we moved, she never did it again. WoooooOOooooo.

  50. agreeing with whoever suggested squirrels in the attic or mice or bats or a snake, probably be better off with a demon

  51. When I was a teenager me and my mom moved into apartments that just do happened to be haunted. We didn’t know for months my mom and I thought we were going nuts. The ghost did all sorts of stuff but one of there favorites was to play with the cats. The cats would jump at the same spot for no reason. We had four different cats while we lived there (most of the cats never meet the other cats) and all jumped at the same spot. I finally had to cover the spot because they were putting a hole in the wall. On a side note the ghost weren’t so bad and I kind of miss them. You never feel alone in a haunted house.

  52. Hi Jenny- I am reading Furiously Happy and I just wanted to say thanks for your courage in being able to be loud and proud about your mental illness. It gives me some courage and even pride for having a mental illness, even though it has caused so much destruction in my life. You have helped me to see the lighter side of it, to not take myself too seriously, and be proud of the person I am- not in spite of my illness, but because of it.
    All the best,
    Marc Hall

  53. My long gone cat Nana (Yes I spelled it right) used to stare at nails on the fall, then jump up and lightly bat at them. I used to think it was her way of saying “hang something here” I miss her and still crack up even thinking of her. Jaw hurts from latest braces adjustment so it hurts to laugh or smile but that’s a good hurt. BTW if memory serves, your kid is dealing with braces now? Hope it is going well. Cheers.

  54. Oh, he’s definitely receiving his orders from a dark dimension. Id start closing your bedroom door at night, oh wait, i had a cat that could open doors. Okay, to judge the threat level i need to know a few things, was Nights In White Satin playing when this happened, if then, he’s just melancholy, if its anything else, take anyone you love and burn the place to the ground.

  55. Both our dog and our cat used to just randomly stare and growl at our back door. We thought it was funny and used to joke about the ghost in the corner. Turned out to be rats. Gah! Stupid boring rats

  56. Fill disclosure (and this is 100% true, no jokes), my family once lived in an old (and i mean old) farmhouse where strange things happened, like lights turning themselves on, oh and my sister repeatedly smelt perfume in her room that wasnt her perfume (the farm workers wing of the house), and more than once woke up when she felt pressure on the bed beside her. My cat at the time and i used to sleep in the attic room, and she would often low growl at the corner of the room, obviously sensing something. Despite all this, none of us were in the least weirded out – my sister stayed in that room for years… i had the best sleep in my life in that house (once the cat settled down after her growling fits) and put down the odd stuff to a benevolent spirit. It happened, and im the last person to be into the spooky stuff.

  57. One of the many houses I lived in growing up, the previous occupant’s son buried dead cats under his floor boards (I keep waiting to find out he’s now a serial killer, but so far he isn’t, or he’s good enough to avoid getting caught or leaving missing persons). This room became my room (after my dad was nice enough to remove the dead cats), and my cat at the time would stare at the floor and growl in the middle of the night. Probably as a precursor to my self-harm issues, I read Pet Semetary while living in this house. After I finished the book, my cat was growling more intensely than usual at the floor, and I yelled at her to stop. What happened next nearly killed me; my cat jumped when I yelled, but so did another dark cat figure and they both ran from the room. After I restarted my heart from the heart attack I’m pretty sure that caused, I crept downstairs to see if the ghost kitty was still there, he was! But it wasn’t a ghost kitty, it was my neighbor’s black cat that had gotten into our house. I was very thankful it wasn’t a demon kitty coming back for revenge because I wasn’t sure how to explain in cat language that I was not the twisted evil child who lived there before. I mean, human based poltergeists are hard enough to communicate with clearly.

  58. SuperCatGirl I just died. That was the best story. This is why I come here 😂

  59. This made me laugh myself to tears – thank you! I am certain you were being defended, but surely the salt has made all the bad stuff go away…

  60. It seems pretty clear that Ferris Mewler is attempting to worship. Many cats go through stages of existential uncertainty, and turn to the Church for guidance and comfort. Having attempted to access the divine via the ceiling light, it is likely that his next step will be to construct a tiny altar, upon which he will sacrifice a burnt offering of some kind. (He may need help with the matches, and if he is not normally allowed outside, may also need your help in procuring a rodent). I encourage you to give Ferris Mewler the time and space to explore his burgeoning faith. Ad lucem, Ferris Mewler, et benedicat tibi Dominus!

  61. I’m sorry I twitter-introduced you to Seanan. This sort of thing is going to happen all the time now.

  62. I’ve never had a cat to know these struggles, but that comic made me laugh so hard I cried. I think this is just more incentive for me to get a cat, although you never know maybe Ferris Mewler was just picking up bad reception from the government signals.

  63. This is the best thing I’ve read all day. Husband is looking at me funny since snorting is apparently not an acceptable response to funny things. What the hell does he know?

  64. creepy. totally unrelated.. after i showered today & was getting dressed, a giant black hairy spider was somehow on my boob. my hand flew like lightning, he hit the wall and started climbing it, while staring at me as I let out a blood curdling scream. no, there were no pics. who has time for pics when a spider is trying to eat your face?

  65. I think he’s just messing with you, Jenny. It’s revenge, for all those taxidermy animals you collect. The poor cat is afraid he’s going to end up stuffed too. And if he is stuffed, that’s the pose he’d like to be in.

  66. Please tell me you all could hear that noise too right? Like I’m serious, there was a legit noise he was reacting to, that’s why he was staring up there.

  67. My dog, Chili, spent more than an hour one night pacing around the (large) ottoman. She was wagging her tail, sniffing at dome one’s hand, and following its movements. Thing is, there was nobody there.

  68. My cat Dorie often does this….standing straight up like a Meerkat, posing in that position for ages, and making little chirps while staring at basically nothing. I’ve tried asking her what she’s looking at. Only then does she choose to acknowledge me with a look of pure disdain, as if to say “hey…I’m a cat. I prefer not to speak “people” to you, so stop with the big questions, okay?” And then she plumps up her tail and walks away, giving me no clue of her answer and leaving me as puzzled as always. Cats.

  69. I know from experience that it’s not a demon. It’s a roach, which is a thousand times worse. Whatever you do, don’t spray it with Raid. You will just piss it off and it will hide under your stove so you think it’s dead. It will wait until you go to bed and then it will find you…

  70. One of my cats (I have 11, at the moment) does this to me several times a day. I have seen him chase a bug, so I have to assume he’s seeing some microscopic bug that I can’t see because my eyesight is so bad. Or maybe they’re ghost (demon) bugs. Well, geez, now I’m worried.

  71. Oh, and kclubert2013 is right. It usually is a roach and never spray Raid on it. (It’s bad for pets…and humans, come to think of it). Crush it with a heavy object. Or, if it’s a large, flying one, like we have in Florida, spray hairspray on its wings (or trap part of it in the drain and pour liquid soap on it. They breathe through their wings and will suffocate. This is what happens when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom after your parents have divorced and find a palmetto bug (as we call the winged kind) in your bathroom, and when you go tell your mother, she tells you to kill it and rolls over and goes back to sleep, instead of getting it up and killing it for you (like your father did). We all have to grow up some time.

  72. Despite the pictures you linked to, it really is most unlikely to be a case of demonic possession, so I wouldn’t worry about it. My money’s on an attempted alien abduction.

  73. I’m allergic to cats, which basically means they adore me. But I want everyone to know that I had not been drinking when I saw a barn kitty wearing a pink gingham apron in Alabama the other day. It’s quite possible she had been, though.

  74. I had this happen a whole lot – I would lift the cat up so they could reach whatever they were looking at. Only once has it been something supernatural, and the cat took care of that too.

  75. If it helps I think my cat just walked through our glass door. I should probably go feed him…..

  76. Moth. I see that look on my cats’ faces and it looks like Death to the Moth time for sure. Or at least the light fixture.

  77. I read this post at work and then went home to find my cat Willow viciously attacking the wall in the hall for NO REASON. Because demons.

  78. Please let us know if you are still with us. But what if the demon invaded your body and we just think it is you? Give us a sign (if the demon will allow it) to let us know you are ok. P.S. I think cats were put on this earth just to fuck with us. At least mine were.

  79. Sometimes the Loki cat does this sort of thing, I never can see what he’s looking at. Then again he mesmerizes small animals and kills some of them so he may be the demon himself. I’m upset cos he just got a bird doing that, it came right into his catio to him.

  80. Not related to demons as far as I know. Will Wheaton will be the keynote speaker at MENSA’s annual gathering. In an interview in the April/May edition of their magazine, he talks about his depression: “The best thing I ever read about [depression] was written by Jenny Lawson . . . Furiously Happy. . . . Jenny wrote how one of the best ways to say ” **** you” to depression was to be furiously happy.”

  81. I once put a lamp in the back of a car while moving. The hatch came loose while we were driving, which activated a total of one light: the one touching the lamp. To us, it looked as if the lamp had turned itself on. Horrifying.

  82. Not time to re-read Neil Gaiman’s the Price.

    also from the run up to the demon cat thing. That one time I thought you were talking about Vaginas and YOU WEREN”T.
    ‏@TheBloggess
    I got lost in the big Bu-cee’s last year. So much beaver. It was overwhelming. #mom2summit

    I couldn’t decide whether Bu-cee’s was southern/Texas slang for Vagina, or just a place you would see a lot of them. Like maybe the gynecologist, although usual you don’t see other peoples at the gynecologist so never mind. Anyway still cleaning cocoa of my screen.

    🙂

  83. My cat “Hotrod” did that one night and I found a scorpion in the light. He saved my life. Or at least from a nasty sting.

  84. I wanted to let you know that cats can hear termites eating away your house. We called pest control when our cat kept staring at a wall thinking it was probably a mouse or something. Hell no, it was termites and they had done so much damage the whole wall and picture window had to be replaced. Our termite guy said its not uncommon for cats to hear them. Googled it and sure enough, he was right. Also mice make cats stare. Just saying… Pest control now.

  85. Oh my gosh. My cat would do the same thing late at night! She would be fine and then stare off juuuust over my shoulder like she saw something right behind me. Sometimes she would even meow like she was talking to the demon!

  86. It’s a strong possibility that he was keeping an eye on “The Silence” since you forget what you’re looking at once you look away. You’ll need to talk to a Whovian in order to better understand who “The Silence” are.

  87. I’m pretty sure there’s a novel in here somewhere… It’s a spin off of Ghostbusters but with a crazy cat lady protagonist. It will sell millions. It can star Ferris Mewler.

  88. All I have to say is that you have an awesome looking kitchen. And if I was that demon, I would be planning a wicked pot of meatballs and spaghetti!

  89. So, I can’t decide if I should be jealous at your SPOTLESS kitchen (even if it comes with demons), OR if I should just decide you never eat, so you CAN’T have a messy kitchen, and Ferris Mewler is simply trying to convince poor Hailey to eat, but you can’t even tell because she got so skinny because you don’t keep food in your kitchen.

    Because, the latter makes me feel like a better dog-mom than you are a human mom, which also makes me feel like a jerk because WHO JUDGES OTHER PARENTS?!? Assholes. That’s who. But, the former just makes me jealous and to feel like I’m a total loser who can’t even keep her kitchen spotless. I mean, what do I even DO with my life?!?

  90. Haha, thanks for the story, definitely helped my mood. Also yea cats are either just weird or they really do know something we don’t. I love my cat but man does he act bizarrely sometimes.

  91. Ayup. There’s a spot on the wall, behind where the Christmas tree stands 5 months a year (because procrastination, don’t judge) where not one, but TWO, of my cats just. stare. intently.

    They also stare behind me on the staircase when I’m sitting on it.

    I won’t look into mirrors in the middle of the night anymore. #creepedout

  92. My old, blind dog Laika used to stand in the corner of the room, just staring. My wife and I called it doing a ‘Blair Witch’. Turns out she was getting a bit senile. I like to think she was communing with her namesake on Sputnik.

  93. The only thing I took away from that entire post was, “You have an amazing kitchen –I want your oven.”

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