I've talked about therapy cats before in this blog, but did you know that there was one special therapy cat who was even able to predict death?
The place was Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, RI. They took in a 6 month cat in 2005 to train as a therapy cat and named him Oscar. According to an article in Medical News Today, he wasn't a particularly friendly cat and preferred to be on his own. Occasionally, he would choose a patient to visit and a pattern started to emerge - the patient he chose to stay with would be the next to die.
The Deccan Herald reports that Oscar the therapy cat correctly predicted more than 100 deaths in his 17 years on the job before his own passing in 2022! One theory on this cat that could sense death is that he was able use his sense of smell to detect biochemicals released by dying cells.
However he did it, therapy cat Oscar would make the rounds of the nursing home, checking in on the residents just like a doctor would. Upworthy says that he would normally move on, but if it came in, he would jump on the windowsill and not leave or curl up in the bed with a patient, and stay there until the end.
The Medical News Today article says the staff at the nursing home started to trust Oscar's instincts so much that they would contact the patient's loved ones to let them know that the patient was likely close to death. The Deccen Herald even notes than an X post reported that he once refused to sit with a patient who the staff thought was about to pass away and instead choose another who seemed healthier, but Oscar was right again and the one he chose was the one to pass first.
Some seem to think of Oscar the cat as an Angel of Death, but I think he provided a service giving comfort in the form of cuddles and purrs to the patients in their last hours. Becuase of his unusal gifts, the staff was able to reach the patient's loved ones to let them know that the patient was likely close to death. In that way, Oscar the hospice cat was able to help give the families more warning than they might have had and maybe help provide the little comfort that their loved one did not die alone. And I don't think I'm alone in that thought. According th the Medical News Today article, Oscar even received a commendation from a local hospice agency and a plaque that reads “For his compassionate hospice care, this plaque is awarded to Oscar the Cat”.
If you'd like to learn more about this so called death cat, there is an entire book about him and about the dementia patients he worked with available on Amazon called Making the Rounds with Oscar, written by Dr. David Dosa, who worked with patients and Oscar at the Steere House.
Photo by Bret Kavanaugh on Unsplash
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