Sometimes the first sign that something is wrong isn't what you see.

It's how the animals behave.

A cat that won't leave a doorway, a dog that refuses to come when you call,

a silence that settles in before something terrible happens.

And by the time you realize what they are trying to warn you about,

you could already be dead.

I'm Blair Bathory and welcome to the Something Scary podcast.

Thanks for joining us as we descend into the darkness together.

So, want to hear something scary?

Your pets are trying to warn you.

Sometimes the scariest part isn't realizing someone followed you.

It's realizing they kept appearing in places they were never supposed to be.

Like in this experience shared by midnight.

It's been a few years since this happened, but I still think about it sometimes.

I feel like it's important to say out loud because I've wondered if I handled it in the right way.

And maybe it'll help someone else trust their instincts a little quicker than I did.

This was the summer before my senior year of high school.

I had a volunteer job at an animal hospital off the freeway in my town.

Getting there meant taking two buses, then another two, to get home.

It was a long commute, but I didn't mind it.

I loved the shelter.

I loved the routine of it.

...