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Nursing home’s cat can sense death

When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, the staff jumps into action — Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die. Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr David Dosa of Brown University. He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It’s not that the cat is consistently there first. But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours, according to a professor Teno. Raised at the nursing home since he was a kitten, Oscar often checks in on residents, but when he curls up for a visit, physicians and nursing home staff know it’s time to call the family.

“I don’t think this is a psychic cat,” said Teno. “I think there’s probably a biochemical explanation,” she told. While pets are often used to bring comfort to the elderly in nursing home settings, Oscar’s talent is special, though not unexpected.

Graves said there is no evidence to suggest cats can sense death, but he doesn’t discount it for a minute. “Those things are hard to study. I think probably dogs and cats can sense things we can’t,” he said. reuters

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