Oscar the 2-year old cat has an uncanny ability to predict death. The feline has forecast the final hours at least 25 patients at the dementia unit of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, where he resides. Not known as a friendly cat, Oscar will pace the wards looking for patients whose time is near, curling up beside them and providing comfort as they die.
Staff at the dementia unit, who adopted Oscar as a kitten, soon noticed the cat's remarkable predictive abilities, calling families and priests when Oscar settled next to the patients in order to administer his own kind of last rites.
"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa, who works at the hospital and wrote a story in the New England Journal of Medicine profiling a day in the life of Oscar. "Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one."
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