Ghost in the laundry room

Maggie soaking up the sun at the last apartment before moving to this home.

So we are living in a house built in the 1900's, and it has plenty of ahem, old home charm. Some facets of the home are quite outdated. What interests me recently is the laundry room. It seems this room has been housing a ghost. To be sure, we think it's a friendly ghost and Maggie seems to be enchanted with her, if such a thing is possible.

The first time we were alerted to a possible presence was last Sunday. We do the laundry Sunday night, and make sure to get the clothing out of the dryer straight away so that Karl's shirts stay wrinkle free. So on this particular evening when we heard the dryer stop, we went in and the dryer door was hanging open. Odd, because it never popped open on its own before in the last several years I have been using it. 

We keep Maggie in the laundry room at night as she is still playful and likes to pounce on sleeping people if she has free roam of the house. Especially sleeping people who are light sleepers and can't function without rest. So the other evening, Karl got up in the middle of the night. He heard something in the upstairs tv room and looked over and saw a shadow. He said, "Maggie, is that you?" And what do you know, it was her. But I had closed Maggie up in the laundry room. The next day we tested the laundry room door repeatedly, each of us being on the inside of the room trying to jostle door open as if we were a cat. But the door is hung so that it won't close completely unless it is latched, and once latched, no amount of bumping will release it from the latch. We were kind of freaked out about this, but in a good way. We eventually concluded there must really be a ghost in the laundry room.

The ghost probably wants to get our attention, to let us know it is there. It isn't trying to get my attention as much as Karl's though because he was the one who saw the dryer door first, not me, and he was the one who saw Maggie at night. I do wonder if the laundry room was once a bedroom. Or maybe at one time it was a porch, because the structure inside doesn't match the rest of the house.

I suppose that the oddest thing I've noticed recently is that Maggie wants to be put in the laundry room at night. Back at the last apartment, she stayed in the kitchen at night. Come 10 pm each night, this girl would start a twitching her tail in a frenzy, laying in wait in other rooms all skittish and nervous, ready to run the second I advanced to scoop her up and part ways for the night. It didn't matter if I shook the treat bag or pulled out her favorite plastic romping bag. These enticements caused her to burrow even more deeply under the coach or bed she chose to hide under. I had to be crafty and sneaky each evening in order to shut the door with her behind it without causing too much drama. And I would have to quickly leave the first floor because she would cry at the door wanting out.

Here it is different. Starting the first week at the new house, Maggie began to climb my leg by 10 pm begging me to "take" her to her room. By "take," I mean that she leads the way and I follow her. She meows loudly on and off for a good half hour or more until I follow her to the laundry room where her food and water dish are already filled. Then she waits in there until I turn off the light and close the door. And she is quiet after I shut the door, even if I stay up late and talk near her door.

I remarked to Karl about the change in Maggie's routine and joked that perhaps she has taken a shine to the laundry room ghost, and that's why she is keen to go in there at night. I jokingly ask Maggie to let us in on what goes on in there at night, and once she looked up at me shocked, then quickly went to being placid Maggie who pretends not to understand.