"Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar's accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a bed and stretches out beside its occupant."
Sounds like the cat should be named “The Grim Reaper”. I would keep that cat away from me if I was in that nursing home.
Why "good grief"? Animals alert us to all kinds of things, in case you do not know.
Socialized medicine.
IIRC, the cat sucks the breath out of people in ancient lore.
In reality, dogs and cats have highly developed senses. The cat probably smells something that is a “death rattle” precursor (now THAT would be an interesting pursuit) and is empathetic so expresses itself to the victim.
There was an episode of “House” about that. House, believes everything has a scientific explanation for everything. He observed the cat doing it’s thing several times, then noticed the cat liked to sit on the warm computer monitor, it was explained that the cat just preferred to snuggle with people that have fever.
Get rid of the cat, and then no one will die.
Post hoc ergo proptor hoc
.
At our facility, we had a resident dog who had been at the facility for over 15 years. If one of our residents began to fade and took a turn for the worse (as a prelude to death), our dog would lie on the floor in the doorway to the room of the sick resident.
EVERY TIME .. the resident died within a few days.
Animals have a very keen sense. Both our dog and the cat in the story had been residents of a facility for a long time. I think that may be the key.
Not to be a party pooper here but just how many times is this story going to be posted? It’s been on here about 4 times now.
Maybe we should send this cat to Afghanistan.
I've seen pictures of this cat... looks like tabby and white, not tortoiseshell.
Sloppy reporting, if you ask me.