Cat predicts 50 deaths in nursing home

[Kassandra]

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.

The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island, which specialises in caring for people with severe dementia.

The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.

If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.

full article:
Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home
By Tom Leonard/Telegraph.co.uk
Published: 7:42pm - 01 Feb 2010


They have LOLcat -ed the little guy on the 'net ...to death.



.

[Buttercup]

This reminds me of an episode of House MD season 5,where there was a cat like this. In the series however they found out that the cat was just trying to be warm and had nothing to do with actual predictions.

[shadowx]

Has anyone got any theories on this to disprove it? Im not saying i dont believe that the cat can sense these things, but its easier to give credit to something that cant be disproved, so if there are no theories then it has more standing in my eyes!

I like the LOLCAT

[Moon_Stone]

I have heard of this cat- in fact, I believe it's just this specific cat who goes to rest with the people who are passing on. From what I've read, apparently there is a physical scent given off by someone who is nearing the end, and there is definitely a different "feel" emitting from them- so I'd assume this kitty is sensing the difference in his housemates, and goes to comfort them during their last hours. Pretty cool cat, if you ask me. :28: (The scent comes from the failures of the physical body/organs, etc., I believe.)

Oh, and way back when, there was another story on this little guy in the papers- and in the New England Journal of Medicine in '07, but it was a much lower number of 'predictions'- I think the House episode was loosely based on that, at the time.

Still, what an awesome cat. I hope someone is there for him when it's his time to go too.

~BB~
*M

[Ginger Faith!]

This reminds me of an episode of House MD season 5,where there was a cat like this. In the series however they found out that the cat was just trying to be warm and had nothing to do with actual predictions.

I was thinking this too!

[DinosaurPajamas]

This reminds me of an episode of House MD season 5,where there was a cat like this. In the series however they found out that the cat was just trying to be warm and had nothing to do with actual predictions.

I was thinking this too!

Same here!!!

[Lily Cantodea]

I don't think Oscar predicts the deaths so much as smells death on the residents. As we near death, our bodies give off a scent (depending on how close you are, it may not even be detectable by humans). That's most likely what Oscar's doing, smelling the scent of death lingering about the residents.

Or perhaps he does have some kind of power to predict people's deaths.

...And maybe I should stop being so secular minded sometimes and not immediately think of scientific/natural explanations.