Aug 02 2007
Can Cats Forsee Death?
In the news this week is Oscar a cat who it appears can tell when someone is going to die. Oscar lives at a hospice and it seems that when someone is dying he will be found sitting by them. They say he just about always get this right and has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died. Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence has written this up in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What can we make of this? Is OscarPsychic ? Well I doubt it. It could be, as others have suggested, that the smell that a person emits during the dying process is attractive to cats or to Oscar in particuar. Maybe he was treated kindly in the past by a dying person and has grown to associate the smell with comfort.
They say this cat isn’t friendly and will snap if people approach him. Maybe he has had to protect himself, since he has always lived in a dementia unit. So another possibility is that a dying person will leave him alone.
What do you think?
See a video
Tags: Cat Behavior, cat predicts death
Here is a gift for you! Download this little ebook "Choosing & Caring For A Cat"
Its free and I don't even want your email address!
Just right click on the link and save to your desktop.
I think cats - all animals for that matter - do have a sixth sense. Maybe psychic isn’t the proper word for it but they definitely possess some sort of radar that we don’t.
Thanks for your input Sharyn, its an interesting topic isn’t it?
Oscar is very sensitive and very aware of his surroundings. He takes his job as a sentry very seriously and is a true comfort to those souls who are to cross The Rainbow Bridge.
My Bobby says so …
I ahve read about this cat and truly believe in this. Great site, would you like to link up?
http://cathealthnurse.blogspot.com/
Thanks for your comment and that you like my site:-)
If you want to keep up to date with postings you can subscribe to the feed. I have explained how to do it under the info tab above.
Subscribing to my feed is as good as a link from Google’s point of view. If you subscribe let me know and I will give you a link.
This is the best video on Oscar that I have viewed, to date. What a unique and sweet kitten he is to provide comfort when most needed. Would that he had been with my Mother’s death bed a year ago. My Mother’s favorite of our cats was Baby Bennington and he would always try to setal her seat wherever she decided to sit. She would fuss at him but they loved each other. When she went to the nursing home, ubavoidable, we all had broken hearts. I would have loved to have Baby Ben be with her but he wouldn’t have tolerated the road trip up and back. He passed away six months after my Mother’s passing. I really miss them too.