The cat that can sense death?

Zorak

Zorak

The cake is a metaphor
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...at-predicts-50-deaths-in-RI-nursing-home.html

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078108

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.

Death-Cat_1570116c.jpg

The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live Photo: AP






By Tom Leonard in New York 7:42PM GMT 01 Feb 2010

Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.

The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island, which specialises in caring for people with severe dementia.
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What do you make of it? It's a nice story at the least. :)
 
I've read about this cat before :) his track record is impeccable apparently.

It's not uncommon for animals to have sensory abilities regarding human conditions like pregnancy or cancer - why not approaching death? Perhaps we give off a pheromone or something when we're very close and cats can sense it.
 
HK said:
I've read about this cat before :) his track record is impeccable apparently.

It's not uncommon for animals to have sensory abilities regarding human conditions like pregnancy or cancer - why not approaching death? Perhaps we give off a pheromone or something when we're very close and cats can sense it.
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The New England medical journal article I also posted, which I think is by the doctor in question, makes the hypothesis that the Cat could be smelling dying cells.

I don't doubt that's possible, cats are certainly extremely gifted in the olfactory department, and it could be an evolutionary trait; cats aren't scavengers, but they are very good at finding weakened prey (especially birds, God, my cat used to bring back so many sickly pigeons...)
 
I too believe it has to do with their sense of smell. I know of Dogs that have been trained to alert Diabetics when they are in trouble and I think some dogs detect seizures too. So anything is possible.

Luckily my cats cuddle w/me all the time so if they can I won't know ;)
 
Well, in history and mythologies, cats have always been surrounded by mystery and related to the supernatural. If you;ve watched "The Mummy" (can't remember what part/s), the cat seem to scare the mummy. Urban legends, say that if a cat shrieks all night, by a house or on the roof, a pending death is predicted.
 
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