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AR15.COM
2/2/2010 5:24:10 AM EDT

Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home



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.



By Tom Leonard in New York



Published: 7:42PM GMT 01 Feb 2010




Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown
University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring,
sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong
in their predictions over which patients were close to de



ath.

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.


Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar's gift in an article in the New
England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to
double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the
geriatrician that it is no fluke.


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.


When
nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close
to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another
room. The cat's judgement was better than that of the nurses: the
second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more
days.


Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar's
accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a
bed and stretches out beside its occupant.


"It's not like he
dawdles. He'll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he's
back at the patient's side. It's like he's literally on a vigil," Dr
Dosa wrote.


Dr Dosa noted that the nursing home keeps five other cats, but none of the others have ever displayed a similar ability.


In
his book, "Making rounds with Oscar: the extraordinary gift of an
ordinary cat", Dr Dosa offers no solid scientific explanation for
Oscar's behaviour.


He suggests Oscar is able - like dogs, which
can reportedly smell cancer - to detect ketones, the distinctly-odoured
biochemicals given off by dying cells.


Far from recoiling from
Oscar's presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends
of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in
newspaper death notices and eulogies, said Dr Dosa.

"People were
actually taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there
and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass. He was there
when they couldn't be," he said.








http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7129952/Cat-predicts-50-deaths-in-RI-nursing-home.html



2/2/2010 5:25:40 AM EDT
[#1]
Death Kitty
2/2/2010 5:28:22 AM EDT
[#2]
soul sucking vampire kitty more like
2/2/2010 5:28:38 AM EDT
[#3]
Has anybody ever thought that maybe the cat is killing all of these people?
2/2/2010 5:31:00 AM EDT
[#4]
DEATH KITTEH IS WATCHING YOU DIE
2/2/2010 5:33:21 AM EDT
[#5]
I've read about this cat before, back when he was only at about a dozen predictions.
2/2/2010 5:33:59 AM EDT
[#6]
I have talked with a number of pulmonary oncologists who can tell from being in the room with new patients that they have lung cancer.
2/2/2010 5:36:47 AM EDT
[#7]
Animals "see" or sense things we don't. When my dad died––-like literally as he passed––-his dog and my grandmother's dog went fucking crazy. I wasn't there but I asked my brother and sister if there was any wailing or loud sobbing on their behalf that would have upset the dogs. They both said "No". My dad had been sick for quite a while so his death, while sad, was expected and everyone was there in his final hours so it's quite understandable that there was no wailing or moaning of sorrow to rile up the dogs. My brother told me that as he exhaled the last time both dogs, which had been in other rooms, came out barking and running all over the place. My dad's dog was trying to get up onto the bed and they had to push him back.

Yeah, animals have senses we don't........
2/2/2010 5:37:34 AM EDT
[#8]



Quoted:


soul sucking vampire kitty more like


My Grandmother, bless her superstitious Irish soul, swore that cats sucked the breath out of sleeping children.  She wouldn't tolerate cats anywhere near her house.  She even had a cat-killin German Shepherd that lived outside.  

 
2/2/2010 5:38:30 AM EDT
[#9]



Quoted:


Has anybody ever thought that maybe the cat is killing all of these people?




This is my theory.



 
2/2/2010 5:39:36 AM EDT
[#10]
Didn't house solve this one?
2/2/2010 5:42:32 AM EDT
[#11]
They had this story on Animal Planet. Apparently dogs and cats seem to "predict deaths" because they can smell the certain pheromones that a human body gives of when they are about to die and are attracted to it. It's not some crazy 6th sense.
2/2/2010 5:48:15 AM EDT
[#12]
Quoted:
They had this story on Animal Planet. Apparently dogs and cats seem to "predict deaths" because they can smell the certain pheromones that a human body gives of when they are about to die and are attracted to it. It's not some crazy 6th sense.



You sure about that?
2/2/2010 5:52:29 AM EDT
[#13]
Cats kill people.  Ban them.  Go on, do it for the children
2/2/2010 6:08:34 AM EDT
[#14]
Quoted:
Cats kill people.  Ban them.  Go on, do it for the children


My thoughts exactly.
2/2/2010 6:09:39 AM EDT
[#15]
Perhaps he is claiming his prize before the other cats can?

All house cats secretly believe they are tigers.

What does he do after the people pass?  I wonder if he attempts to cover the prize with a blanket, for instance.


2/2/2010 6:30:12 AM EDT
[#16]



Quoted:


Perhaps he is claiming his prize before the other cats can?



All house cats secretly believe they are tigers.



What does he do after the people pass?  I wonder if he attempts to cover the prize with a blanket, for instance.