http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151992708

Cat 'predicts' 50 deaths in nursing home

A feline in New England appears to have the ability to detect when patients of a nursing home are about to pass away.

The five-year-old cat, Oscar, spends most of his time strolling nonchalently around the building, before choosing to curl up with residents during their final hours.

If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, when nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought was about to die, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The second patient died that evening, while the former lived for two more days.

Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records confirm Oscar's prediliction for nuzzling up to those close to death.

In his book, Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat, Dr Dosa offers no substantial scientific explanation for Oscar's actions. Instead he suggests that the cat is able to detect ketones, the biochemicals given off by dying cells.

"People were actually taking great comfort in this idea," explained Dr Dosa, "that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass. He was there when they couldn't be."

Oscar 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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