 |
| Simon Purrkins the cat |
But things that dart into people’s paths and brush against their legs are another matter.
For about a year and a half, staff members and volunteers at the Summit County Historical Society have reported encountering what they believe is the ghost of a dark-colored cat in the reputedly haunted mansion just west of downtown.
Sometimes they see a cat’s form. Sometimes they hear a meow or a distinctive sneeze. One felt something brush against his leg during, of all things, a paranormal tour.
They think they know who the mysterious resident is: the spirit of Simon Purrkins, a black cat who once prowled the mansion’s grounds as the historical society’s unofficial chief executive.
The sightings started around June 2013, some eight months after Simon died. “I just thought that was coincidental,” said Leianne Neff Heppner, the society’s executive director and one of the many humans Simon once held in thrall.
That Simon would return makes perfect sense to her. He lived a big part of his life in the historical society’s offices and on its grounds, from the time employees rescued him as a skittish kitten in 1998 until he moved East with his human family in 2009.
Read Full Story: Arizona Daily Sun
