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 ...

... 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 death.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...rsing-home.html

That's pretty amazing. Cats are much cleverer than people give them credit for, interesting that only Oscar does this vigil, I suspect all cats have the gift but only a few choose to use it.

I knew I'd seen this before...

"Here Kitty"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1273721/

Funny quote, House calls the cat "Goodbye Kitty"

Edited February 5, 201016 yr by Jdietz

That's pretty amazing. Cats are much cleverer than people give them credit for, interesting that only Oscar does this vigil, I suspect all cats have the gift but only a few choose to use it.

Some cats are less lazy than others...

Here in Thailand that cat would predict even more deaths.

When the cat of death comes, you die.

That's rather scary, I have some of my cats curling up with me on a daily base

I think what was rare here is that they had a cat in the nursing home. Every cat I've ever known has been able to sense when a person was ill or in great distress. Like people, cats vary in how empathetic they are. Almost all will cuddle up or lie near a person they like who is in distress, some will do this even for people they don't like.

Both the cat I grew up with and my current cat will lie across the head of the bed, near the person's head, when they are in protective mode. It's like b being watched over by an angel.....

I once worked in a hospice which allowed pets to visit and extended stays when death was near. The cats always stuck to the side of the dying person and attempted to defend them when. for example, a nurse needed to start an IV.