In 1931, in Dalby located on the Isle of Man, the Irving family started hearing unusual sounds coming from within the walls of their farm, which was named Cashen’s Gap. The noises were so obnoxious, pictures which were hanging fell off the wall , and plates moved. As time went on the noises turned to hissing and crying sounds. James Irving, his wife Margaret, and young daughter Voirrey were convinced it was an animal scurrying around the house unseen. James decided to reciprocate noises right back, and to his amazement, the mysterious creature started reflecting identical noises right back at him.
Irving decided to enlighten the creature with a few words, and after several weeks, the creature could talk perfectly. He initially referred to the entity as ‘Jack’, however the mysterious animal told the family he wanted to be know as ‘Geoff’, which he spelled out phonetically as ‘G-E-F’. Gef also mentioned he was a mongoose born on June 7th, 1852 in Delhi, India. He refused to show himself to the family, and was often at times quite ill-mannered. As the family grew fed up with the incivility, and threatened to leave, Gef calmed down. Over time, the family and the talking mongoose grew quite close, even letting them brush him through an opening in the wall.
Ultimately, the rumor of Gef’s presence spread throughout the region, but when reporters from afar surfaced, they were thoroughly unimpressed. They believed it was Voirrey, the daughter who was generating the voice. The Irving family sold the farm in 1937, and were believed to have taken the socializing mongoose with them. Although, while there may be no correlation, the new owner in 1947 declared he shot an animal similar to a mongoose outside his residence.
The notion of a mongoose inhabiting the Isle of Man is not quite as eccentric as it may seem. A farmer in 1912 imported a group of animals to annihilate pestilent rabbits on his land. Although, many modern day researchers strongly believe Gef was most likely a Poltergeist.However, there is one last fascinating variable to point out. In India, there is an old legend which states that with an adequate teacher, over the course of time a mongoose can learn to speak.