The latest paranormal diary entry from Gemma of Junior Paranormal Events

Before I go into this, I need to tell you about Toby. He was my neighbor’s beautiful big black
Labrador, and I loved him dearly. Growing up, I wasn’t able to have my own dog and so I
took great delight in looking after Toby – walking him, having him stay with us when his
owners were away – he was MY boy. When Toby passed away, I was completely devastated
but then I started to see Toby around my home, fleeting glances out of the corner of my
eye. The tippy tappy of paws on the tiled floor and the sound of zoomies up and down the
stairs. He was still with me, and he remains so to this very day. The experiences I am about
to share with you may very well be my Toby coming to see me at work.

Office 7 is very much a home from home for us, we have made it ours and we love spending
time here – even on a dreary Wednesday morning as I am writing this. Our own dog, Poppy
the Labrador, comes to work with us every day where she sleeps on the sofa only waking
every now and then if there is food, or walkies, on offer. She doesn’t even raise an eyebrow
when our resident spooks are clattering away in the kitchen or flicking the lights on and off.
However, we do seem to have a furry friend who is much more active.

Sat at my corner desk, I have lots of space underneath and have created a sleeping space for
Poppy underneath it. Engrossed in work one day, I felt brushing up against my leg, the kind
of nudge that a fairly large pooch will give you if they want your attention. “Let Mummy
finish this and we will go for walkies, Pops” I didn’t even look up from my computer, I had a
deadline to meet. Then it happened again, so I told her quite firmly to wait as I wouldn’t be
much longer. My husband had just finished a meeting, had heard me talking to Poppy and
was very confused because Poppy was sound asleep on the sofa well away from my desk.
Convinced that there was something underneath my desk, I was on my hands and knees
checking for signs of a rat or mouse but whatever had brushed up against my legs was big –
Labrador big – and, if there was a rat the size of a large dog, I am pretty sure we would have
been aware of it.

From time to time, we come up to Champness with our children to do some investigating –
we are very lucky that we have access to her as and when we like. We like to settle down in
our office area, put out some paranormal kit and see what happens. More often than not,
we do have interaction, the spirits seem to appreciate that we are finally giving them some
attention. One particular evening, we were sat in the breakout space outside of our office
on the sofas when we heard it – the pitter patter of walking on the lino floor that is in the
kitchen. If you have a dog, you know the noise I mean -the sound of paws on the floor – it is
a very specific noise. We have high ceilings, with this being at the top of the building, this
means that everything echoes.

It happened several times as though a furry friend was walking across the floor.

We tried everything to explain it – was it a dripping tap?

Was the wind tapping at the window?

Did we have a mouse? No, No and No.

Using a voice recorder is a good way of catching interaction up here and we have used it
many times. Several voices have been captured but more on that in later diary entries.
Again, we were sat outside in the breakout area, the voice recorder was on the floor, we
were chatting away and having a cup of tea. At the time that this particular EVP was
captured, I was telling our children about the experience I’d had in the office, and this then
led us on to talking about Toby. During that conversation, we’d heard no noise, and it was a
relatively quiet night up here but then we listened back to the recording and there it was – a
growl.

Just to be clear, before anyone interprets this as something negative or demonic, this was
what we would call a gentle, playful growl. If you have a dog – especially a large dog – you
know the type of low-level growl that can happen when you are playing with them. Poppy
does it when we are playing with her rope, it is done without any harmful intent and all in
the name of adding to the excitement of playtime. But Poppy wasn’t with us that evening.
I have been doing extensive research into Champness Hall and there are several possible
reasons why a dog may be associated with the building. It would have been common for a
preacher to live in Champness Hall with his family, the house is at the top of the building on
the same level as our office, perhaps there was a family dog. The land that Champness Hall
is built on has history spanning hundreds of years and there have been different buildings
on some of the land, it could be possible that the dog is connected to the land. It could also
be my Toby coming to see me at work, dogs are more likely to form a connection with a
human after all. No matter what the explanation, dogs of the furry kind – and the spirit kind
– are more than welcome in our office at any time.

Very soon, as in within the next couple of days, I am about to do a 12-hour lockdown in
Champness Hall for fundraising. My wonderful friend Jade will be joining me, and we will be
sleeping in our office, I have no doubt that we will be visited by our resident spooks at some
point that night but I do secretly hope one of them is my Toby.