Werewolves and Shapeshifters

Joanne Wotypka is a sessional lecturer in the Religious Studies program
of the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Alberta.

Is there any reason that animals shouldn’t provide us with ghosts,
just as humans do? In a way, ghost stories of pets and animals are
creepier than those about human ghosts. Pets and animals are quite
inscrutable when alive; when dead, they seem to take on even more
mystery.

Much like human ghosts, supernatural animals cause many of the
traditional ghostly upsets: unexpected appearances and disappearances,
unexplained noises and sensations, and so forth. However (for pets, at
least), it seems that they simply want to continue on as they did when
they were “in the fur” with their favourite chairs and favourite
people. As might be expected, most of the stories revolve around pet
cats and dogs. In between these more mundane offerings are tales of a
talking mongoose and a phantom moose.

Zenko draws on stories from various cultures. Though his focus is
mainly Western, occasionally he forays into Eastern legends, such as the
particularly memorable “The Boy Who Drew Cats”—a retelling of an
old Japanese tale that is excellent in both its charm and its
spookiness.

In Werewolves and Shapeshifters, I expected more of the same. But
instead of the usual set of short vignettes, the book contained seven
traditional stories from cultures ranging from Native North American to
French. “The Wolf-Man” is the strongest story in this collection.
Adapted from a Blackfoot tale, it tells of a hunter who finds himself
transformed into a wolf, but retains the knowledge of his human ways.

Out of the many collections of ghost-type stories that I have reviewed,
Zenko’s are definitely superior in both content and style.