Cuddly Furball Of Doom

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 12:55pm

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

Oscar the Cat Predicts Patients' Deaths

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 12:58pm

I read about that yesterday. How very sweet and sad at the same time.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 1:04pm

Perhaps we could get Oscar to snuggle up to HDThoreau

[shameless]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 1:08pm

Cheeze, that has to be one of the best thread titles of all time!

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 1:10pm

That is crazy!!! But really, really cool.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 1:11pm

I heard this story this morning, lying in bed as my cat was snuggling me as hard as he could. Unsettling to say the least.

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 1:15pm

my grandmother adopted an old cat from her friend's father who had recently passed away. the ca was seven years old and had always been with this man, a great companion to him. The man fell ill with some form of cancer and the cat would not leave his side the last few days of his death but the second he died, before he was even checked by a nurse and found dead, the cat left the room and refused to return.

He's a sweet cat, but I feel bad for what he must have gone through.

I think cats can sense these kinds of things. They're spooky creatures that way.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 3:56pm

IM IN UR NURSIN HOME, PLAYIN GRIM REEPER.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 4:52pm

hilarious, Lizzie!

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 6:19pm

my grandfather died in a nursing home in march... i dont know how i would have felt about a cat predicting his death and jumping up on his bed.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 6:39pm

this is not a boobs thread?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 6:59pm

... and throughout the night "Keep that damn cat out of my room!" was heard echoing down the corridors.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 8:29pm

My father and I both work in hospice and he found that article hilarious and it has been passed around to many hospice offices in NJ.

[Anakela]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 10:35pm

He's already up on lolcat-




sykik

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 10:51pm

this was just on the news... they called him a cat scan.

[Undeniably Bway]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 11:02pm

On the Spanish news station - they called him "El Gato del Muerte".

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 11:09pm

tha cat of death, right?
or death cat?

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 7/27/07 at 9:58am

Should I be concerned that Oscar looks exactly like my mothers cat?

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 7/27/07 at 5:32pm

Oscar made the New Jersey Hospice Newsletter, Trasitions.