Gef
Gef ( JEF), also referred to as the Talking Mongoose or the Dalby Spook, is the name given to a talking mongoose which was claimed to inhabit a farmhouse owned by the Irving family known as Cashen's Gap near the hamlet of Dalby on the Isle of Man. The story was given extensive coverage by tabloid press in Britain in the early 1930s. Although the Irvings' claims gained the attention of parapsychologists and ghost hunters of the era such as Harry Price, Hereward Carrington, and Nandor Fodor, contemporary media scholar Jeffrey Sconce writes that the most likely explanation is that "this 'extra extra clever mongoose' was an imaginary companion created by the Irvings' extra, extra clever daughter."
Story
In September 1931, the Irving family, consisting of James, Margaret and a 13-year-old daughter named Voirrey, claimed they heard persistent scratching, rustling, and vocal noises behind their farmhouse's wooden wall panels that variously resembled a ferret, a dog or a baby. According to the Irvings, a creature named Gef introduced itself and told them it was a mongoose born in New Delhi, India, in 1852. According to Voirrey, Gef was the size of a small rat with yellowish fur and a large bushy tail.
