The Coven of the Cat: "The Haunted" Documentary

 

The following is a post which was originally published on my former cat blog, "The Cat Cottage" dated October 29, 2011.

Rob Viars never took more than a passing interest in the history of his home until several frightening events forced him to take a closer look. After he and his wife see strange shadows and hear disembodied voices and their pets begin reacting to unseen entities, Rob calls in a paranormal investigation team to help them understand what was happening. When the team records the nightmarish wail of a ghostly cat, Rob's search for answers lead him to uncover the truth behind a cat-themed group and the rituals they performed in his formerly safe home.

This afternoon while watching The Animal Planet series on television called, "The Haunted," I saw an episode that really struck me and I just felt as if I had to write a post about it. 

First of all, I watch this show all of the time and usually the stories revolve around families and their pets who have experienced some very "abnormal" paranormal activity ~ voices when there is no one else in the house, pets who are either affected directly or indirectly by something or someone, etc. Second, these families most often than not choose to bring in a Catholic Priest along with a Paranormal Team of sorts to cleanse their homes in order to get rid of these "unwanted" or, for lack of a better word, "evil" spirits be they human or animal. I was torn between posting this one on my Wiccan blog, "The Wiccan Life" or here. (I had finally decided that it would have slightly more relevance on this blog rather than my Wiccan blog).

A Pennsylvania resident, Rob Viars, and his family moved into such a house. Their cat, in particular, was terrified by this strange spirit. In short, the house was once owned by a man named Dr. Frederick LaMotte Santee who was the town doctor and the leader of a Wiccan coven called, "The Coven of the Catta." This coven worshipped the Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet.  Of course, there had been a lot of rumors and half-truths going around about people practicing witchcraft and performing seances, etc. for years.

Around the time The Viars family was getting, "haunted" one of the descendants of Dr. Santee's coven, Lord Shawnus, had come across this story on the Animal Planet website about the house where the doctor had lived. He had decided to come forward to help this family and to set the record straight about both the house and witchcraft. Turns out that the doctor's neighbors were so paranoid about these rumors of speculation, that someone actually tried to burn down the guest house where the coven's sacred cat, Bastet, was living. The house was saved and everyone managed to make it out alive except for the cat.  It was believed that this was the same cat's voice screaming which the PAA (Pennsylvania Paranormal Association) picked up on their EVP's.

The Viars family asked Wiccan High Priest Lord Shawnus and his High Priestess to cleanse their house of Bastet's spirit and send her toward the light.

In Conclusion | Fatal Attractions (Part Two)

First off, I needed to make a correction to my first post on the story, "Cat Dancers: The true life story of Ron and Joy Holiday". Upon re-watching the second Animal Planet episode (there were actually two of them - one regarding Chuck's death and the second episode was about Joy's), I realized that I had made a mistake. I have already made the edit correction to that previous post. However, I just wanted to clarify Ron's story/account of what happened that day and quote him correctly. My sincere apologies. In case anyone is interested, I have included the clip from Animal Planet's second part of the story. Thank you!

The Cat Dancers | Fatal Attractions episode (Part One)

The first time that I had ever heard of "The Cat Dancers", was while watching an episode of the Animal Planet television series, "Fatal Attractions." The series dealt with the true stories of people who keep very dangerous wild animals such as tigers, panthers, snakes, monitors and other reptiles, chimpanzees, bears, hippos, bucks, even buffalo as personal pets - believing that these animals could actually form a bond with them - that they could tame the "wild" out of them. In most cases, it cost them their lives. 

This is the episode regarding "The Cat Dancers" ...

The Cat Dancers: The true life story of Ron and Joy Holiday

"Like a hyperbolic tale ripped from the cover of Weekly World News, the documentary film “Cat Dancers” is steeped in exotic animal fur, nude portraits, a love triangle, spandex, headbands and rhinestones ..."

~ From the HBO documentary, "Cat Dancers"

The following is the true life story of Ron Holiday (his stage name; real name Ron Guay) and his wife Joy Holiday (her stage name; married name Doris Guay; birth name Doris Gagnon) and their jaguar, panther and tiger show. I will do my best to condense their incredible journey as best I can (in other words ,the short version). 

Ron and Joy both studied ballet/dancing when they were very young. In fact, they grew up together. They performed Las Vegas shows as a couple before they became "The Cat Dancers". And, before "Siegfried and Roy", there was Ron and Joy Holiday, the husband and wife team who became the world’s first exotic cat entertainers in the 1960’s. Chuck Lizza, also an animal trainer and an attractive younger man, was asked to join their act in the 1980's.  The three of them eventually got involved in a love triangle. Needless to say, Ron and Joy had a rather unconventional marital relationship to say the least.

Their tigers were not only their act, they were also their beloved pets whom they raised and trained when they were just cubs and also lived on the cat ranch located at their home ...

At home with the "cats".

A publicity photo of Ron, Joy, and Chuck.

So, what went horribly wrong? Well, Chuck was attacked and killed by their one and only white Bengal tiger, Jupiter, whom they had since he was a cub, while at their home. White Bengal tigers are known to be even more dangerous than any other breed of tiger - they are far more aggressive and their temperament is extremely unpredictable! The main reason for this is because White Bengal tigers are inbred by humans - messing with their DNA. With that, comes both physical and mental abnormalities such as crossed eyes, deformed lips, and, of course, mental instability.

After Chuck's death, Joy became so distraught that she fell into a deep depression. She refused to eat and lost even more weight making her terribly frail and weak. Ron, at a loss as to how to help her, and, in an effort to cheer up, asked her to come help him feed the babies because they missed her. So Joy and Ron walked out and when it was Jupiter's turn, she, in her weakened physical state was shaking and began to lose her balance while trying to feed him. THEN IT HAPPENED! Jupiter reacted by taking Joy's body into his mouth and threw her full force into the ceiling - as if he were tossing around a rag doll! She died immediately. 

Such an intriguing, yet very tragic story indeed. I came across an HBO Documentary about "The Cat Dancers" which was filmed back in 2007. As I was watching it, my eyes could not help but to be glued to every interview - every show clip - every detail. If you would like to learn a bit more about their fascinating story, please check out sites such as Amazon, etc.

It was well worth the watch!!