Joni Mayhan – A Cat Named George

Air Date - 16 January 2025

Many of us love our animal companions but if you are truly blessed, you may see in your pet an almost human soul and level of awareness. My guest this week on Vox Novus, Joni Mayhan, had this blessing in a beautiful black cat named George. Joni Mayhan is a paranormal investigator and the author of 25 books. She lives in the quaint town of New Harmony, Indiana, where she owns and operates Haunted New Harmony Ghost Walks & Investigations. She shares her home with five felines and a rescue dog named Holly.

She joins me this week to share her latest book about a special cat that touched her life and the lives of many others, A Cat Named George.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the New Dimension,
Vox Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from
their experience and offer tools to help us navigate our
rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome to

(00:28):
Vox Novus, the New Voice. Many of us love our
animal companions, but if you are truly blessed, you may
see in your pet an almost human soul and level

(00:49):
of awareness. My guest this week on Vox Novus, Joni Mahan,
had the blessing and a beautiful black cat named George.
Joni Mayhan is a parent, normal investigator and the author
of twenty five books. She lives in the queintown of
New Harmony, Indiana, where she owns and operates Haunted New

(01:09):
Harmony Ghost Walks and Investigations. She shares her home with
five feelines and a rescue dog named Holly. She joins
me this week to share her latest book about a
special cat that touched her life and the lives of
many others, a cat named George. Please join me in

(01:30):
welcoming to Vox Novis. Joni Maheon, Hi Jody.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'm Victor, so good to talk to you again.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Absolutely, we had the pleasure of meeting at a paranormal
convention several years ago and have been friends ever since.
Please share with our listeners your early path and your
first experience with the paranormal.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, you know, I was born a medium, and it
was something that I didn't really embrace until I was
a full grown adult. But as a child, I knew
when there was something nearby, and things would move in
my room when my mother would turn off the light
at night, and I just knew there was something there.
And you know, it started as early as I want

(02:12):
to say, probably four years old. I saw my first apparition.
When I was about seven, we had moved into a
new house that my father built on land that had
never been built on before, and there was a ghost
there and there's still a ghost there. My dad still
owns that house, and it would torment me and I

(02:34):
would always have There were certain areas in the house
that I did not like, and I couldn't explain why
I didn't like them, but they gave me a sense
of fear. And one of them was the long staircase
that led up to the second floor, and if I
had to go upstairs, which is where all of our
bedrooms were, I'd race up those stairs as fast as

(02:54):
I could and get to my bedroom. Well, one night
I was having a dream, and in the dream there
was a ghost that was trying to chase me, and
it kept telling me if you don't, if you don't
come to me, I will take your sister, you know,
or I will take your family. And I kept trying

(03:17):
to escape from him. And then I woke up in
a panic, and I looked up and there was an apparition,
a shadowy apparition in my doorway. And a lot of
people describe apparitions as being white. This was black. And
it came into the room and it kept coming. It
was very slowly, like it was biting its time, like

(03:37):
it was trying to build up the tension. And it
finally came to the side of my bed and stood
right beside me, and I was pretty much frozen with beer.
I wasn't sleep paralysis because I could move. But finally
I managed to scream out for my mother in the
minute she started coming in. It just disappeared. But those
things continue to happen in that house as well. And

(03:59):
as I got older, I discovered that every house I
moved into or lived in was haunted, and nobody really
believed me. They thought I had an active imagination, which
I did, you know, I'll give them that, But what
I was experiencing was very real and I couldn't explain it.
So I just quit talking about it. Because I was
already being bullied quite a bit as a youngster, and

(04:24):
being separated from them by something as strange as seeing
ghosts or feeling ghosts would make me even more of
an outcast. So I just started not talking about it.
And it really took me until I was in my
twenties before I really realized what was going on, or
really maybe I didn't embrace it. I was terrified of it.

(04:45):
We moved into our first house after I was married,
and that house was haunted as well. And it wasn't
until I was in my forties that I said, all right, enough,
you know, knowledge is power. I'm going to learn as
much as I can about this and put aside the
fear and really stand up to what's going on. And

(05:07):
I joined a paranormal group and started working with my
mediumship abilities with my friend Sandy McLoud, who you know
as well. She was also going through it at the
same time. So it took us a while, but we
started getting better and better and able to identify where
the ghost was in the room, what they looked like,

(05:28):
what their intent was, And that's kind of you know
where I am now. I'm still to that point. I
could probably get better, but I've had a lot of
really terrifying paranormal encounters over the years, which I've written
about in a lot of my books, so I kind
of hesitate.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
It's really interesting because I didn't realize we had very
similar childhoods where I had similar Age four or five
was my first visual contact, and then age seven, my grandfather,
my paternal grandfather. It was in my room. I didn't
see him come in. I said, where'd you come from, Grandpa.
He didn't say a word and just smiled, and then
he disappeared, and I went into the living room and

(06:07):
told my parents that Grandpa was just here, and they
said I was imagining things again, and a couple of
minutes later, the phone rang with word of his passing. So, yeah,
you had very very similar last I didn't realize how
similar our backgrounds were.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
That is really interesting.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
You share that you are Claire Audience and there's always
a ghost in your house. Please describe what your Clare
audience is like and the messages that you hear.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well. Claire audience is in Latin clear hearing, and different
people experience these different ways. For me, it's a sound
similar to either ear ringing or white noise, and it's
always in one ear or the other, it's never in both.
And if I turned my head, I can track to

(06:58):
where the sound is coming from, and if I tune
into that. I always think of my Claire audience as
my gateway. It's like the doorbell, you know, hello, ghost
is here, And if I tune into it, I'm able
to begin pulling more information. And I find that I'm
especially accurate when I write. So if I take you know,

(07:21):
if I take pen and paper and start writing down
what's coming to me, which is almost this type of
automatic writing, I'll pick up more and more and more things.
So that's what my Claire audience looks like.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
You've written more than twenty five books, including your twenty
sixteen release Ghost Magnet, in which you share why the
spirits they're attracted to you? Why are you a ghost magnet?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
You know, I still go back and forth on this.
I've asked a lot of psychic mediums. I've asked my
own spirit guides there is something about me that they
find irresistible. And I've had different people tell me that
my energy is very pure and very white, like my
auras white. I actually just had somebody tell me that
the other day. They said, wow, you have such a

(08:09):
white aura, and I, you know, really don't know why
that would attract them, but it's almost like, you know,
I am a ghost magnet. If there's a ghost anywhere nearby,
it's going to come to me. So I used to
do house walkthroughs for people, just to give them information
about what was haunting their house. But what I found

(08:29):
happened was whatever was there followed me home. So they
were delighted they no longer had a ghost, but now
I did. So yeah, it's been you know, and they
haven't always been good ghost. I mean lately they've been better.
But you know, back really when I knew you, or
when we met at that para con and during that

(08:52):
period of time, I think we even went to an
investigation together at one point, and yeah, I know we
did because I learned a lot from you. But that's
when I, you know, was really pulling in the really
dark ones. And you told me something at an investigation
that has stuck with me since that point, and this
has been a long time. We were investigating somebody's house

(09:15):
and there were a bunch of us there. You were there,
I say, and he was there. But anyways, we were
in the basement and that's where they had always identified
there being a really negative ghost, and so we went
down there and everything I knew, you know, I knew
not to, you know, try to provoke it, because I

(09:36):
don't believe in that, but some of the others in
the group were coming a little bit, becoming a little
bit negative towards him, and you said, all anger stems
from hurt and something must have happened to him in
his life to make him be this way and to
show him some compassion, and that's exactly what we did,

(09:59):
and then we start learning more about his story, and
it was really I've carried that with me since that point.
Every time we come to a negative haunting, I think
about what Victor Furrman told me.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
So thank you well, thank you for sharing that, and
also thank you for adapting that principle, because I believe
that when you're talking to a spirit, if there was
a person standing in front of you, you wouldn't address
them the way that some of these paranormal investigators addressed
the spirits. You would address them with compassion and with
dignity and a bit of respect. And that's always been
my format when working with disembodied spirit But thank you

(10:36):
for sharing that. Just to get back to the question
of children having experiences, what would you say to parents
of children who are reporting of these type of contacts
and experiences.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, actually, I have already worked with quite a few children,
you know, since that point, and what I tell them
is to, you know, for them to learn as much
as they can about mediumship and and what's going on
so that they're able to help their child. And I
had a local friend whose house was always having hauntings

(11:10):
and some of them were quite scary, and she had
a six year old daughter. Well, the mother was the
mother's a medium and she passed it down to a daughter.
So her daughter was starting to pull in things ghosts,
and I was standing, you know, I went in and
did a walk through and I identified that a lot
of the activity, the strongest place in the room was

(11:31):
the child's closet, and I, you know, I started pulling
in some information, but not a lot that I felt
like that was where the ghost really kind of hid,
and you know, and she would back that up as
soon as I told her that. I always go in
and I'd say, don't tell me anything, because I don't,
you know, once I want to go in with a
clear slate. If they tell me there's a ghost in
the closet, that's all I'm going to think about. So

(11:53):
I didn't know anything. And then afterwards she said, well, yeah,
that's you know, every night she wakes up and says
there's something in her closet. So I pulled the child
in and I taught her how to ground and shield,
which I think is a really important thing for everybody
to learn. Mediumship or not grounding really as a release
of any energy that doesn't serve you. And I taught

(12:17):
her how to do that, and then I taught her
how to make a bubble of protection around her using
white light. And she did that and she and all
of a sudden, you know, I'm hearing the ghost with
my clare audience, And as she did it, it was
like somebody turned the volume down and then pop, it
was completely gone. And I looked at her and I said,

(12:39):
she said, I used pink I use pink light because
that's my favorite color. And she said, and I decided
not to just push it around me. I thought I'd
just push it all around the house. So she was
able to push that ghost out of the house, which
I thought was pretty remarkable. With other children like my grandson.
Neither my children seemed to have inherited my abilities. But

(13:02):
my seven year old grandson, when he was about five,
kept talking about seeing a ghost and there were ghosts
in the house. And they live a thousand miles away
from me in Massachusetts and I'm in Indiana. So I
told my son, I said, get a bottle, just a
spray bottle. Fill it with water and maybe something else

(13:22):
that's not toxic, and you know, right on the side
of the bottle ghost spray, and tell him that when
he feels something in his room that he doesn't want
to deal with, to use that spray. And my son
came back and he said, yeah, he said, I put
for breeze in it. He said, I figured we'd kill
two birds with one stone and they stopped having activity

(13:49):
because I think it, you know, it wasn't that there
was something special in that for breeze water mixture. But
it was empowering him to believe that he had control
over the situation and it worked. So, you know, that's
kind of where I am with dealing with children.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
At a minimum, would I say to the parents of
children who are displaying these abilities and seeing things and
reporting things, Listen to what your child has to say.
Don't dismiss what they're saying. Don't say it's an overactive imagination.
Give them the opportunity to share with you what they're
going through because this may be important as they grow
into adulthood. So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Absolutely, Please tell us about that town in which you live,
New Harmony, Indiana.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
New Harmony. Yes, you know, it's really funny because I
grew up in this area, not in New Harmony. I
grew up in the next town over and lived in
quite a few different places, and a lot of the
time we had to drive through New Harmony. I was
always aware of it. It's a very old historical town

(14:53):
founded in eighteen fourteen by a group of Methodists who
are escaping persecution. So they set up a utopian society
here and they were very successful. They did last about
ten years. But after that ten years they decided to
move to Pennsylvania, where shipping lanes were a little bit

(15:15):
more accessible, and they sold the town to another utopian experiment,
a man named Robert Owen, and he really focused on
science and education and social reform. But he wasn't his organized,
so his town on his version of utopia only lasted
two years before the town just kind of settled into

(15:37):
being a little Midwestern town with a lot of history. Now.
I talk about this in my book about George. But
came to a point where I really needed to move.
Things were really falling apart from me in Massachusetts, and
my lifeline was here in Indiana where my parents were.

(15:57):
And when I was trying to buy a house, they were,
you know, I was doing it a long distance. Friends
and family were going to look at things, and I
was adamant I had to move to New Harmony. I
was very much pulled here, and when I moved in,
when I finally got here, I really wasn't thinking about ghost.
I was really just trying to heal from all the
trauma I had gone through. And as I was walking

(16:20):
around town, I'm like, oh my gosh, there's a ghost
in this building, Oh my gosh, there's a ghost in
this building, And so I started asking around and the
ghost stories in this town are phenomenal. Literally every building,
just about every building has some kind of haunting. And
part of my mission here is uncovering a lot of
the old ghost stories, talking and with the ghosts that

(16:43):
are here and trying to learn their stories and also
try to understand why this town is so haunted. I mean,
the history is very compelling, but there's something else going
on here that's causing this energy to really be productive
for retaining ghosts.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
And you are the owner and operator of Haunted New
Harmony ghost Walks and Investigations. What do you offer on
these ghost walks?

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, we now have three ghost walks. That started off
with just one. It was me and my clipboard standing
down in the corner hoping people would sign up. And
as we were doing the ghost walks, we would meet
a lot of people and we started hearing more stories
about other locations, and we expanded to a second ghost
walk in twenty nineteen, and then last year we've rolled

(17:32):
out our third ghost walks. So I have three tour
guides who do ghost walks with me, So there's four
of us total. We're looking to add a fifth for
this year. But it's an hour and a half long,
and it's very heavy on the history because history is
really important to me because I really feel like it's

(17:53):
the foundation for a lot of the hauntings and if
people understand the why, then maybe they'll adapt to the
ghost lore. A lot of people don't believe in ghosts,
and when I came here, it was I was the
first person that had really brought it to people's attention.

(18:13):
But remarkably, I've had very little backlash because almost everybody
that lives here has either had an experience themselves or
they know someone who's had an experience, so it's been
pretty wonderful. But yeah, we walk for less than a mile,
but we walked to each location and we tell the
history and then the stories about the hauntings, and then

(18:35):
we move on to the next one. So it's a
lot of fun. We always laugh a lot, you know.
A couple of my tour guides are really funny, so
we end up having a really good time when we
do them.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Working our way towards your new book of the moving
book A cat named George. You are an animal lover
and share your home with five fee lines and a
rescue dog named Holly. What is your relationship with these
animal companions mean to you?

Speaker 2 (19:04):
It means everything to me. I had a house fire
last year and I wasn't concerned about anything getting anything
out of my house except my animals, And once I
had them out, I thought, you know, that's all I need.
They're my family. I live alone, and I spend a
lot of time with them, and I think, you know,

(19:24):
people that don't like cats haven't really invested the time
and energy into them from the beginning. I mean, you
get what you put into any pet, but mine or family.
And I spend a lot of time with them. I
talk to them, I take good care of them, listen
to their needs, and try to, you know, to be
a really supportive parent, which is kind of how I

(19:47):
see it. They're like my children, so we have a
very close bond.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
With the gift of clairvoyance. Do you communicate with your
animal companions?

Speaker 2 (19:57):
You know, I've I wish i'd to do better, but
there have been many times where one of my cats,
in particular, Rosie, is a clear communicator, and I remember
one day the first time I got a message from
her I was staring at my phone and she came

(20:18):
up wanting attention, and I heard in my head, why
were you stare at boxes, mommy? And I thought, you know,
she's absolutely right. I'm spending way too much time either
on my laptop or on my phone, and you know,
to her, I'm staring at boxes, and she doesn't understand why.
And so, you know, when they don't feel well, I know,

(20:39):
I just you know, it's not even necessarily how they're acting,
that is part of it. But I just get a
vibe from them, a sense from them, you know, which
is why I was so close to George, because I
really feel like he was part of my He was
maybe a sole connection for me, and I don't know.
I've just always been very close to animals, and I've
always understood their need. I'm empathetic and I think they

(21:02):
feel that and they gravitate towards that. I've always been
good with animals. Animals always always like me and come
to me. So it's just been part of who I am.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Does Rosie like the climbate the boxes?

Speaker 2 (21:18):
She does? She does? Actually they all do. Amazon day
is there, you know, which is pretty much every day
around here. But I get a new Amazon box, and
you know they're overjoyed because they got a new toy.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
We're talking with my dear friend Joni Mayhean. Her new
book is called a Cat named George. We're going to
be talking about that book when we come back. Jenny,
please share with our listeners where they can get all
of your books and find out more about you and
your work.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Awesome. Yes, all my books are available on Amazon dot com.
Just type in my name and you'll see them. There
are twenty five books. If you want to learn more
about me and my ghost walks, you can go to
either Haunted New Harmony dot com or jonimahon dot com.
It's the same website, so that's where you can go.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
And her name is spelled jomimay Ham, So now you
can look her up and find her books and do
everything with the material that JOHNI has graced our world with.
And we'll be back with more after these words. On
the Own Times Radio network.

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(22:42):
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Speaker 4 (22:52):
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(23:12):
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Speaker 1 (23:46):
Back on Vox Novus, my guest this week is my
friend Joni Mayhean. We're talking about her new book, A
Cat named George. Jony, your latest book is a departure
from your series of books on spirits and hauntings and
the paranormal. What inspired you to write A Cat named George?

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, I had the privilege of having a black cat
named George for twelve years, and he came in my
life and really taught me a lot of lessons and
he was just very remarkable. He captured the interest of
so many people. I'd share his antics and photos on

(24:29):
social media, and he really become very special to a
lot of people. And I really, you know, like I
talked about a minute ago, I really feel like George
and I had a sole connection that, you know, perhaps
we had lived a life together before, he was instantly
a connection to me. Like many other people that I've

(24:51):
come in contact with, and sometimes with pets, I mean,
I love all my pets dearly, but I have a
deeper connection. And I had a deeper connection to George
than I have ever had with another animal. And I
just really wanted to memorialize him. And also it helped

(25:11):
me deal with my grief by going back and talking
about the good times, not just focusing on the day
he died.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Absolutely, Just for those who are grieving, whatever circumstance they
may be grieving, how does writing or journaling help you
through that grief?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
It really helps me process it. Grief is such a
strange companion. It sneaks up on you, it brings forth
a lot of memories, and writing it out helped me
process it. By experiencing his life again from a different venue,
and really by writing it down, I was able to

(25:51):
focus on some of the really great things that he
did and the things that he brought to my life.
You know. It just it just really helped a lot.
And I don't know, I'd recommend if anybody is dealing
with grief to, you know, channel it down on to
paper and it just helps you, I don't maybe understand

(26:15):
it a little better or relieve some of the pressure.
It's almost like a balloon and you let out a
little the pressure each time. So that was what helped me.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
And for those who are not comfortable writing, you can
always open up your phone and start dictating a message
and talk it through to help you process that grief.
So there are a lot of tools that we can
use to do that. Absolutely in a cat named George.
You share that you were working at Petco for a while.
How did you working at Petco shape your understanding of
the needs of animal companions.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Well, you know, even before Petco there was there were
two other pet stores that I actually three other pet
stores I worked at. I have always been drawn to animals,
and I thought, you know, if I'm going to pick
a profession, I'm going to pick something that I love.
And being in the animal field really helped a lot,
and I got to have the opportunity to learn a lot.

(27:10):
A lot of the stores that I either worked at
or managed offered training, so I was able to learn
more about being a better pet parent in my own pets,
as well as sharing information with other people and helping
them navigate through their lifetime with their pets. So it
was really beneficial. And people had come in with their

(27:30):
pets and I got to see pets. Only one of
the pet stores I ever worked at soul like dogs
and cats, and I'm really glad that pet Code doesn't.
But it also caused me to bring home a lot
of other pets that I probably shouldn't have. But you know,
I just have always been an animal lover and it
was the right place for me to be.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Before we discussed George, please share with us about some
of the earlier animal companions that shaped your life, their
personalities and what they meant to you.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Oh, it's just such a long list. My first dog
that I ever had of my own was a Collie
and his name was Sam, and I was a huge
fan of Lassie. I'm really aging myself, but I watched
Lassie religiously and someone at my dad's work was giving
away a Colligue and so he brought it home and

(28:20):
Sam and I were inseparable, and really he was one
of my first playmates. Because we lived in a rural area.
There weren't a lot of other children around. So Charlie
and I are Sam and I had a lot of
fun during that point. The reason I said Charlie so
I was thinking about. We found a baby raccoon and
my mother bottle fed it until it was old enough

(28:44):
to eat on its own. And so one of my
early companions was also a raccoon named Charlie Brown, So
that kind of I'm definitely a voice for wildlife. I've
saved a lot of animals over the years that rescued
a lot of baby possums. Last year, I think I
rescued thirteen baby possums alone. So other pets that I've had,

(29:07):
I mean, I had a little cat named Pewter. It
was a kitten, and I felt a really deep connection
with Pewter, and through that I learned that animals also
are able to see ghosts, some of them, not all
of them. And through my life I've had some cats,
never in any of my dogs, which is interesting, but

(29:28):
always the cats have been watching what I've been hearing
with my clare audience, so it's been very validating. The
next animal that really meant a lot to me was
a cat I had originally named him Gaiter, and he
was a brown tabby and he was very sweet, but
he was too sweet to be a gater, so he
became a gator Bug, which was kind of a fun name.

(29:52):
But he would he was, you know, he was very
open to the paranormal, like he if I felt the ghost,
he felt it too, and he was watching and sometimes
it wigged me out a little bit because I didn't
want to know what was in at the corner of
my room. But the cat, you know, Kat wouldn't stop
staring at that same corner. So yeah, I've had a

(30:13):
lot of animals over the years. You know, each one
of them has been very special to me, and I've
given it the best life that I could possibly give it.
And I've rescued a lot of cats. There have been
a lot of feral cats that have shown up needing homes,
and I actually drove two of them to Massachusetts over
the years to rehome them there. So yeah, I love animals.

(30:36):
I really connect with them. I understand them, and I
empathize with them.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
How did George come into your life?

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Well, it's you know, I talk about this in my book,
and it's really kind of funny because at the time
I was fairly recently divorced and I was living in
a home by my first home that I ever owned
by myself, and my son lived with me four days
a week, and then he lived with his dad three
days a week, and his father had a barn on

(31:07):
his property and they had a couple of barn cats
in there that they never bothered to spay, and these
cats kept producing litter after litter, and somehow they always
managed to find homes for them. But as someone who
you know is a big animal advocate, it always really
bothered me that they never had these cats spae, that
they were contributing to the pet population and there's just

(31:30):
not enough homes for all the kittens that are being
born in the world. And so Trevor came home one
day and he said it was January first. He told
me said Dad's cat had kittens. Again. I'm like, oh, surprise, surprise.
And he said, well, there's a black one in that
litter that I really want. And I'm like, you know,
Dad said against it because I'm not going to support

(31:52):
his father and his pet population issue. And Trevor's kind
of he worked me over. He said, but Mom, I
want a cat that loves me more than it loves you.
All the cats around here love you the most, and
you know, it's like it just broke my heart. I'm like, oh,

(32:13):
you know, okay. So right before he was going to
bring home, there were two black kittens in that litter,
and one of them was hell on wheels, climbing the
curtains fighting with the other cats, and the other one
was very sweet and docile. Well, the hell on wheels
cat jumped in across the fireplace screen into the embers

(32:34):
and burnt his paws, and Trevor called me and he said, Mom, Mom,
can I take the other kitten instead? Because I know
Dad's not going to taste to the vet. And I'm like,
oh my god, please bring it here, you know. And
he came in with the kitten and there was really
there wasn't even singed fur. So, you know, I feel
like there's more to that story that I didn't hear.

(32:56):
They did end up keeping the other black cat and
they named him Oscar, and he was very docile and
very laid back, and you know, we got the curtain
climber instead. But you know, I'm glad it worked out
the way it did. But initially I wasn't real happy
with the situation.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
And what did George look like and what was his
personality like?

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Well, George was black, solid black, and short haired, but
he had two white dots. There was one white dot
on his chest and another white dot low on his belly,
and the space between those two white dots was no
hand zone. If he tried to pet him on his
belly between those two white dots, he would definitely let
you know that wasn't an option. George was. He was

(33:40):
two cats. Sometimes he was very fierce. He protected the yard,
kept all the Farrells out, and the other cats in
the neighborhood were terrified of him because he was a
much bigger cat than they were. He almost looked like
a miniature panther, and several people would say that, They're like,
oh my gosh, he looks like a like a panther,
and so I often, you know, I called him my

(34:01):
black panther. You know, he seemed to really you know
when you talk about connecting with your pets. When I
told him he was my handsome panther, I could feel
his energy just surge with love, like he really liked
the fact that I was calling him a black panther,
and he really truly embodied that. When he walked, he
walked with such grace, you know, you really just had

(34:23):
to watch him. But then his other side was he
was very sweet and affectionate with everybody. He was very friendly.
He would just go up to anybody and they would
be like, oh hey cat, you know, and not run away,
and just he befriended a lot of people. And he
caused me to get out of my comfort zone many

(34:44):
times because he would go meet neighbors before I met
neighbors and then they'd say, hey, do you have a
black cat? And I'm like, yeah, that's George, and they're like,
oh my god, I love your cat. And so we
ended up having a conversation that we wouldn't have had
if it hadn't been for George. So, but you know,
he was my I mean, he snuggled with me every night,
He slept on my pillow beside me, and he always

(35:05):
wanted to be close to me when he was inside.
He was just a remarkable cat.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
You say in your book that George was a talker.
What did he have to say?

Speaker 2 (35:17):
He always answered if you'd ask him something, you know,
he would say mr. He always had this really distinctive voice,
and you could have a whole conversation with him. You
could ask him question and he would answer you right back.
And yeah, I usually knew what he was saying because
George had a fixation with golf carts. After we moved

(35:38):
to New Harmony, George had always been an inside cat
and he kept escaping and we'd have to go find
him because we never lived in areas that I was
comfortable with him being outside. And when we got to
New Harmony, I said, well, this is pretty safe, you know,
or safer than anywhere we'd been. And you know, when
you have to chase a cat down two times a
day for like four years, you finally just get to

(35:59):
the point and you're like, all right, fine, you can
go outside. And George quickly learned that he loved golf carts,
and it wasn't just mine, it was other people's as well.
People would drive by and stop and look at him,
and he'd jump on their cart and sometimes they'd take
him for a ride. So a lot of his talking
to me came from at the end of our golf

(36:20):
cart ride. I'd say, well, that's it, I'm sorry, George,
and you go, ohh, and I was like, you know, no,
he was just saying just a little longer, mom, please,
you know. So I usually knew what he was, what
he was feeling and trying to enunciate to me.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
You had said that George was like a soul made
to you. Please describe how that felt.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Well, I really feel I really believe in reincarnation. I
believe that we reincarnate with other souls, and at the
heart of that is the sole family, and those are
the people that reincarnate together. The most and we may
have lived thousands of lives together. And I have always
felt a deeper connection with George than I have with

(37:00):
even a lot of people. And I feel like he
was he was very potentially my one of my sole
family members, you know. In fact, you know, after he died,
I could still feel him around here, and I kept saying,
you know, George, you know, we need to make sure
we live more lives together. You know, he just had

(37:22):
a deep connection with him.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Did George get along with the other members of your
animal companion family?

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, he did. He did. He was very protective over
over the other cats. If anybody tried to, you know,
if they happen to be out on the porch and
something else try to get after them, he would take
care of it really quickly. When I first brought home
Jack and Rose, they were tiny kittens, and he that

(37:53):
they were they were They were orphaned at two days old,
and my sister bottle fed them and they were supposed
to go back to a family who were going to
use them as barncats. And on one of my visits
back to Indiana, she convinced me to bring them home.
And it wasn't hard because they were beautiful, sweet little kittens.

(38:15):
And I brought them home and George instantly became their
mentor and their father, like he groomed them. He was
their daddy, and he showed them everything like the litter
box and how to use the scratching post, and you know,
he really took them under his wing. And you know,
later in life, George wasn't his interest in the other
cats when he came inside it he'd had a long

(38:36):
day out, you know, prowling the neighborhood. But if they
came up to him, he would give them a lick
on the forehead, you know, just letting them know that.
You know, he was always the alpha though they knew
that he was the one in charge that they always
respected that. So he was. He was great with all
the cats, except for the Farrells.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I'm curious. I've seen suchus where cats have brought their
a family mice, the caught mice and brought them home,
carrying them home. Did they ever do that? Did George
ever do that?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
No, he was a he was a really good hunter.
He would bring them home. He would go there's a
field not far from my house, and he would go
over there and hunt, and he would bring home voles
and he would eat them. He'd sit in my front
yard and just literally eat the whole thing in my
front yard. So now he never shared, but he did

(39:31):
bring them home. He was a great mouser. We never
had a mouse in the house once I brought George home,
so he was His gifts were other than that.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
My guest is my dear friend Joni Mayhan. Her book
is called a Cat named George. We'll be back with
more after these words on the Own Times Radio network.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
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(40:13):
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Speaker 6 (40:23):
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Speaker 4 (40:44):
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Speaker 3 (40:48):
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Speaker 1 (40:54):
Back on Box Novus. My guest this week is my
dear friend Joni Mahon. We're talking about her book at
named George. Joni, did George and the other members of
your pet family present the challenge to your writing?

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah? Definitely. I have my desk pushed up against a
window and that is the favorite place where they like
to sit. So I made the mistake recently of putting
a bird feeder against the glass, and these cats have
been in here pounding on the glass every time a
bird comes up. So yes, in that aspect. Over the years,

(41:34):
I've trained all of them not to walk on my
keyboard so they know they're not allowed to walk on it,
because I've had them completely delete the entire file by
walking across the keyboard. So that was a quick lesson.
But more than anything, I think they inspire me. I
have a cat on my desk right now, and you know,

(41:54):
they provide me with a nice little break. Sometimes I
feel like they know when I need to step away
and take a break, and that's when they come to me.
They're respectful for the most part of me. My youngest Ophelia,
she's still learning, but she's getting there. The other cats
are teaching her what she should should and shouldn't do,
and George taught her a lot too.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
So yeah, they ever walk on the keyboard and write
a sentence for you.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
They Yeah, it never makes any sense though.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
You mentioned in your book that George was a feline
paranormal investigator. Where did he find ghosts?

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. When we first got him, I
had just gone through my most horrific haunting and that
was the sole collector and I did write a book
about it. But it was a very It was when
I first got into the paranormal and first started learning
about my abilities, and I drew in something very very

(42:55):
strong and very nasty, and I had was just a
matter of months since it had been gone, and I
was still a little, you know, shell shocked over the
whole experience. And when George came in, he immediately started
doing what Gatorbug did, started watching things in the room,
and you know, at that point, I was, you know,

(43:18):
I was still pretty terrified about what had happened, and
I thought, oh, please, don't let this be another really
bad one. And George would come into my room, and
unlike the other cats, he wouldn't just watch it. He
decided to go get it. And he would climb up
onto my chest where I had a TV, and he
would get up there and bat at things that you know,

(43:41):
there was no bug. I always looked it was, and
it was where I was hearing the sound. He would
try to fight it, like trying to get it out,
and I just think his energy was stronger. You know.
I don't know if or maybe I do know. I
think cats are like people. Some of us are more
gifted with the paranormal than others, and I think that

(44:04):
follows with animals as well. Not all my cats have
been able to see ghosts, but he definitely could, and
he took it upon himself to be my protector. And
over the years, if I had something pretty strong in
my house that was concerning me, George would always appear.
I would say, you know, calling out to my spiritual

(44:25):
allies and my spirit guides. Polease surround me with protection
and keep me and my pet safe. And as soon
as I'd say that, he would come into the room
and he would climb up onto the bed and he
would sleep at the top of my pillow, like draped
around the crown in my head, like he was protecting
the crown of my head, and it just become a ritual.

(44:48):
He only did that when I had a haunting that
was disturbing me, and he was always there for me.
And you know, I haven't had really had anything happen
since he's been gone, and I have to wonder if
he's protecting me from the other side. So I think
his legacy is still continuing.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Did he ever accompany you on any of the ghost walks?

Speaker 2 (45:12):
No, now, he he used to walk with me and
the dog, but only on a path that was close
to my house. I never brought him out because he
would have been way too interested in what was going
on and he would have been probably gone. Then I
would have had to stop the ghost walk to find him.
But everybody knew him, you know, he was very well

(45:37):
known around town. I don't think there was one person
in this town that didn't know who George was.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
You share that George saved you. That's a very personal
and powerful statement. Please explain, Well, when we.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
First got George, my life was precariously hanging. I was
holding things together but barely, and things really started falling
apart for me in Massachusetts. During that time, I went
through a divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, rejection, just you know, just

(46:13):
everyday things. It was like nothing was holding together. But
George was always the consistent. He was always there, and
he was always positive, you know, with his energy, and
I become prone to talking to him and sharing, you know,
what was going on with me. And when we finally
ended up here in New Harmony, you know, George's elation

(46:36):
over finally being able to be outside was palpable. He
was very happy, and you know, he really he really
taught me a lot. I watched him. He was fearless
at times, he stood up for what he wanted and
he was but he was also sweet at the same time,

(46:56):
and he was not afraid of people or any and
you know, he kind of pulled me out of my shell.
Just by watching him and just always having him there
to be comfort really made a huge dramatic difference in
my life. I've never had a pet make a more
more impact on my life than George.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Do you think that was part of that sole connection
you had with him?

Speaker 2 (47:21):
I believe so, definitely, definitely. I learned a lot from him.
And you know, most people, I think if they really
looked at their relationship with their pet, they'd see that
their pet taught them something as well. And but you
have to really look at it, because you know, they
don't talk out loud, and they don't you know, counsel you,
but you watch their actions, and yeah, I definitely think

(47:45):
that we had a sole connection and he was here
as part of my life's journey to help me overcome
some boundaries and some issues that I had in my life,
and he definitely made it, made it easier, made it better.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Tragically, after twelve years, George transitioned. I know how heartbreaking
this was for you. What was it like for you
to lose him?

Speaker 2 (48:10):
I find myself tearing up just thinking about it. It was.
It was one of the most horrible days of my life.
You know, he was hit by a car and I
knew the minute I let him out the front door
the very first time, that I was putting him in
danger or allowing him to be in danger. But I

(48:32):
kind of came to the conclusion that a life fully
lived is better than a life conservatively lived. And George
would have never been happy being indoor cat, so he
really lived his best life here. He was happy, He
did what he wanted to do, and he was usually
cautious with the cars. I don't know what happened. I

(48:54):
didn't see it happen. Somebody hit him and then didn't stop.
They just left him for dead on the side of
the road. And I don't even know how long had
gone by. But one a woman that lives down the
street that knows him, saw him trying to walk home,
trying to get back to his mom, and she came
up and told me that, you know, she said, George,

(49:16):
and she looked over his shoulder and I saw him.
He had just collapsed into a poddle inside of the road,
and so I rushed him to the VAT and he
did have surgery, survived surgery, and they really gave me
some hope. They said, you know, it wasn't as bad
as what we thought. He had broken his sternum and
several ribs, and he had a hernia where, you know,

(49:38):
caused a lot of damage. But they thought he was
going to be okay. But overnight, the day after his surgery,
he passed and they called me the next morning, and
it was devastating to me. I just couldn't imagine a
life without George. He's just been such a fixture in
my life and you know, a member of my soul family,

(50:01):
my support, and just knowing that he was gone just,
I don't know, just brought me to my knees. Grief
is something that I probably will always hold with me,
even though I try to remember his good times more
than that day he died, But just not having him
here is really hard.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I know that when I conduct human funerals and I
officiate human funerals, one of the things that I share
is that if the person who has passed has touched
your life in any way, has been special to you
in your life, has given you a gift, a special gift.
Part of the healing of grief is to express gratitude.

(50:44):
If you could express your gratitude to George right now,
what would you say.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Well, I would thank him for being in my life,
for you know, gifting me with his presence for twelve years,
and for making such a deep impact on my life,
and I don't know that you know how much I

(51:12):
loved him. You know, I don't know that I've ever
loved anybody as much. Well, maybe my children, but as
much as I loved that cat. He took a piece
of my heart with him when he died.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
And we had talked about journaling. We had talked about
the writing to help with grief. Are there any other
suggestions you can offer our listeners who may be grieving
the loss of a pet or even a family member.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think that you know something that
you just have to go through. The thing that was
the hardest for me were the first, you know, the
first time I got up and he wasn't at the
door asking to be let out. You know, I would
look at the door every time. It took me weeks
before I stopped looking for him coming home from somewhere.

(52:02):
He would always come running across the yard to greet me.
And the first time I came home and he was
there brought me to tears. And I just think that,
you know, once you get through those first things, the
second time is maybe a little bit easier. You know.
He died in early November and it is early January

(52:22):
so I've had plenty of time to experience these things
over and over again without him, and you know, I
think about him, but I don't break down in tears.
So I think just time and having somebody to talk about,
you know. For me, I it helped me to to
to write it out. And I also had a friend

(52:44):
online who was going through something similar with her pet,
and so we kind of comforted each other and it
definitely helped. So, you know, it's just it's just a process.
You can go under it, you can't go around it.
You just have to go through it and try to

(53:05):
retain the happy memories. Try not to fixate on the
last day when you lost them, in the fact that
they're not there anymore. Try to remember the fun times
and the good times in the essence of their being
instead of the memory of their death.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
What would you like readers to take away from a
cat named George?

Speaker 2 (53:24):
I just want them to I mean, you know, throughout
the book, I talk about the importance of taking good
care of your pets, and also about you know, having
them spayed and neutered, and cat populations and being that
person that steps forward to help an animal in distress
instead of hoping somebody else will do it. And I

(53:46):
think I just want them to see George for what
he was and maybe make them look at their own
pets and go, you know, if maybe if I spent
a little bit more energy and time on my pet,
I could have a cat like George, or a relationship
with an animal like I had with my cat. And

(54:07):
I don't know, I just you know, I just really
wanted a place where I could put my love for
him and be able to look at it again and
come back. So in some ways I wrote this book
for myself. I wanted to retain the memory of him.
He did so many really funny things. I mean, the
book is not all sadness. The book is a lot
of just hysterical things that this cat did over the years,

(54:30):
and a lot of it's survival too. You know, it's
not even just about the cat. It's how I survived
all those things that I went through. And I do
talk about spirit guides and listening to their messages and
you know, watching the signs. And I haven't really expressed

(54:50):
this to anybody, but I often see numbers repeating numbers,
and they kind of warned me when something's coming. And
in the month before George died, I kept seeing five
five five over and over and over and over again,
and you know that always signifies changes coming. And but I,
you know, I had my guard up, but I didn't

(55:12):
know how bad it was going to be. And you know,
lately I've been seeing a lot of ones which I
take for a message that my guides are here and
everything's okay, not to worry. So, you know, through that
whole process, I think I really connected better with my
spirit guides as well.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
The wisdom of my dear friend Jonnie Mayhan. Her book
is called a Cat Name George. Joni, one more time,
please share with listeners where they can get all of
your books and find out more about you and your
wonderful work.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Well, they all my books are on Amazon. They are
twenty five of them, and my website is jonimahon dot com.
And I also, I didn't mention this before, but I
am also on social media, so they can find me
on Facebook or Instagram, TikTok if it doesn't go away soon.
I have a lot of videos on there of George,

(56:02):
so they can buy me on any of those platforms.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Joni, thank you so much for joining us today and
sharing this amazing story and your love for George.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Thank you for having me on, Victor, I really appreciate.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
It, and thank you for joining us on Vox Novius.
I'm Victor Lavoie Furman. Have a wonderful week.