Tucker, the late haunted dog. Courtesy of Lee Frederick

“People say that children and animals can sense things that we cannot,” Lee Frederick said. “So let me tell you about my dog Tucker!”

Now, even though it’s a “shade” past Halloween, I’m still a sucker for The Weird & Unexplained. (That fact might shed light on some relationships — but that’s another story.) Last week’s column mentioned a child’s claim to see auras, so now it’s an animal’s turn.

“My ‘psychic dog’ was so smart!” said Lee. But what disturbed Lee was how the Brittany (spaniel) would NOT go into the kitchen — even when Lee’s husband John tried to tempt the dog into the room by tossing meat there. (Lee said now the breed is simply called “Brittany.”)

“It was the strangest thing, and really bothered me — and not much bothers me,” she said. “Tucker would get the strangest look, and sometimes cry.

“But you cannot tell the line between the new and old construction. And we didn’t live in this house [near Roanoke College] when the construction was being done. But she knew the dividing line!”

Finally “feng shui” friend Nancy Canestaro brought Pat-the-medium in with her from Tenn. to check things out.

One freaky thing was that when Pat came to the home “right away she said that there were three strong vibes about my [late] mom, Florence Kime Logan. Right!” Lee laughed. “Mom really hated camping and cooking, and she loved cats.

“Immediately Pat said ‘multiple spirits are here.’ She said she could see ‘Roger,’ a naughty boy about twelve or thirteen. He had brown hair and wore black socks and an early 1900s Peter Pan collar. And he was pestering Tucker — not the other dog — with a stick!

“After Tucker died (at eleven years old) Nancy gave me a gift certificate for a Pennsylvania pet psychic, who later mailed me a tape of the session. It had been conducted over the phone — that’s what made it so weird! She described things no one could have known about. It made the hair on my arms stand up.”

Lee and John remained intrigued by the goings-on, and brought in another psychic “who said there was a ‘portal’ in the house. Now, that concerned me,” Lee said.

Lee reports that the new dogs do not sense any such disturbance, and that things now seem quiet in the Frederick home.