Bin the 1980s, my lover and I moved from Parkdale in Toronto to 419 Sherboune. It was an apartment on the 3rd floor, the door to our apartment was on the 2nd floor. We moved in with 3 cats and a dog. It was a vast bedroom with a bedroom at the top of the stairs, opposite the kitchen, with a long hall with a bathroom 3/4 of the way down the hall and a living room at the end. The building was senior and the living room had a kitchen sink in a miniature room behind a wooden bookshelf. I was told they rent every room, sort of like a guesthouse.
The first time I thought something strange had happened was when we came back from London and found a wooden cross hanging on the wall on the floor, and one of our cats in the bathroom on the windows seemed scared, and our two Siamese dogs were lying under our bed. It was strange because they always came out to greet us, especially when we were gone overnight.
The door to our apartment was on the second floor, and there was about 6 inches between the closed door and the first step. There was carpet on the stairs, but the cats discovered that the carpet under the first step could be pulled back and reached the walls. I placed a miniature mosquito net between the step and the door to keep the cats from getting into the walls. My lover worked in a beauty supply store and closed every evening at 6 p.m. Several times I heard what sounded like the door to our apartment opening and someone climbing the stairs, but only up to the third step, the dog heard it too and went with me to look for it, but there was no one there.
One evening I heard the door open and someone walk up the 3 steps and then stop. When I went to check, no one was there, but the screen from the bottom step was on the third step. I mentioned this to my lover who just laughed and said it was my imagination. One evening around 4:30 p.m., his friend visited him. We drank coffee and talked while waiting for my lover to come home. My dog was lying in the living room, facing the hall. Our friend and I heard the door open and someone walk up the 3 stairs. I looked at my watch and it was only 6 p.m., so I knew he wasn't my lover. I looked at my dog who was looking down the hall and had just started wagging her tail when suddenly she jumped to her feet and started barking and growling, all the hairs on her back standing on end. Our friend grabbed my large ashtray for a gun because we thought someone had just broken into the apartment. We hurried to look down the hall but my dog kept blocking me and wouldn't let me go into the hall, she kept her eyes glued the entire time and seemed to be looking at something about 6 feet above the floor, constantly growling and barking. Me and my friend didn't see anything.
We searched the apartment and found cats on the bed with fluffy tails and eyes as large as saucers. After searching the apartment with me, our friend left, asking for my lover to call him as soon as he got home. I took the dog and sat outside until my lover came home and asked him to call our friend immediately. Our friend told him what had happened and we wrote to the owner to let him know we were moving out.
As soon as we got the keys to our fresh apartment, I took over our cats, usually when cats are taken to a strange place to hide, but this time our cats were running and playing. Once I came back after taking out my stuff to check the mail, I took my dog with me, but when I got to the stairs leading into the building, she wouldn't go up.
