Oscar the cat, adopted as a kitten at a nursing home in
A few months after the adoption the staff noticed that Oscar would go around the home sniffing and observing patients and then sleep next to certain patients. What astonished the staff was that whoever Oscar slept with would die within 2 hours. The cat has apparently predicted accurately the death of 25 inmates. Now whenever Oscar is found curling up and sleeping with a patient the staff calls the family to inform them of the impending death!
This news has received wide media coverage and even an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. It is surprising that NEJM has published such a report even though it is anecdotal. Extra ordinary claims need extra ordinary proofs.
Assuming this is true, how is the cat sensing the impending death? Cats and other animals are known to sense or predict impending natural disasters like earth quakes. Some think the animal is able to smell some chemicals emitted by the dying. Some are of the opinion that the cat is picking up reduced movements of the dying inmate.
What ever it is, this is one cat I wouldn’t want curling up next to me. Read more here
1 comment:
Sulfi,
Thsi article is really intersting. I think every hospital would now start adopting cats to predict deaths!!!:-)
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