A psychic cat

A cat can sense within hours when someone is about to die. Believe it? It is not a joke but it is a real story happens in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The cat, Oscar, was raised by the nursing home since he was a kitten. This cat often checks in on residents, but when he curls up for a visit, physicians and nursing home staff know it’s time to call the family and the resident is about to die.

According to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence, this cat has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died. Dr. David Dosa wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine. There was one particular day detailed by Dr. Dosa, Oscar settled onto the bed of a patient in room 313. His presence sent staff off to make calls and set up vigil. The patient died a half an hour later.

Is Oscar a psychic cat? Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University does not agree on that. “I think there’s probably a biochemical explanation,” she mentioned it in a telephone interview. She is of the opinion that animals can sense things that human cannot sense. What do you think?