Sounds like someone decided that this cat was psychic, and the rumor spread, probably regardless of the facts. People die quite often in a place like that. The rumor turned the residents against the cat. Nothing the cat could do about it. Rather pathetic, really.
When someone is dying perhaps they send out a certain kind of energy and that’s why the cat was sitting next to them. Kind of how a dog can be trained to detect a person about to have a seizure. Just a theory.