Hedges was one of three cats in a household. After the other two died, Hedges took on their role for a few days, lying in a favourite spot or sitting in a particular way, each peculiar to the other cats.

After Hedges died, she was seen for a long period sitting in the rose garden, and the owner took it as a sign that animals have souls.

This is just one of the strange stories sent to Petra Stapp following her appeal on this page last month for people's mysterious experiences with animals.

Petra, of Coleford, Somerset, is investigating such cases for a PhD, looking at the meanings people place on encounters with animals, and why they do so in the face of the" "hard" scientific standpoint.

"The strangest story I had was from a lady who told me about her encounter with two snakes," Petra told me. "She was gardening when she felt the urge to go to the bottom of the garden. She was drawn to tidy up some vegetable netting and found a snake caught.

"She carefully untangled it and set it free and went back to what she was doing. She then felt drawn to go back to the same spot, and found a second smaller snake in the netting. She cut that one free, believing it to be the mate of the other snake.

"She made the point that, in the Chinese zodiac, she is a snake."

Petra's research involves listening to and collecting people's stories about how an animal encounter has changed their view of the world in some way.

If you have an incident you would like to tell Petra about, you can contact her by email at theothers@me.com