July 27, 2007
| Death Cat for Kitty |
The Boston Herald has a heartwarming story about a putty little kitty cat who goes by the name Oscar. Oscar is a 2-year-old gray-and-white kitty who is so putty. Sooo putty. Oscar was adopted as a kitten by a Providence nursing home. And he’s a little kitty. Yes he is. Oscar plays with string and can predict when you'll die. Yes he can, the little button. He’s sooo … what the hell!?!
In 25 observed cases, Oscar has gone into the room of a nursing home patient, curled up next to them and then they die, usually less than four hours later.
“He doesn’t make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,” said Dr. David Dosa.
The death cat grew up in a third-floor dementia unit. After awhile the staff noticed Oscar making the customary rounds along with nurses and doctors, sniffing patients, eyeing them cautiously and, finally, sitting beside them -- a few hours later … inevitable demise.
We’ve about had it with cats. Really. They sniff the souls away from your babies and now they are clearly murdering old people in Rhode Island. No wonder they have 9 lives. They're taking ours.
Dr. Dosa describes Oscar as generally aloof. “This is not a cat that’s friendly to people.” Quite the opposite. This is a cat that smells death and probably fear. Not the warmest of animal senses.
“But come on baby … Don’t fear the Reaper ... 40,000 men and women everyday.”
But before we label this cat as death personified, we were struck by the comments of Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who questioned the death predication skills of the nursing home staff compared to Oscar. While observing a patient that Oscar had sidled up next to, Teno noticed the woman wasn’t eating, breathing regularly, and that her legs were turning blue.
Oscar is just confirming the obvious here. He's more Ed McMahon than he is Grim Reaper. And Ed McMahon is still alive ... right?
Ya, I read about some other dogs doing that.