Oscar the amazing psychic cat

Steer House in England is a Nursing home, and one of the home’s pets, a cat named Oscar, is special, and there have been reports about him on several international newspapers. A resident doctor, Dr David Dosa believes the tabby can predict the death of patients, seeking them out and remaining with them in their final hours. He explains how Oscar challenged everything he learned at medical school, which later led him to write a book on this amazing cat.

He says that most of his elderly residents seem to like having pets around. Their love of animals, like their love of babies and music, is one of the last things to go. Perhaps animals provide a connection to the person that they used to be - they are like a bridge back to the world. Oscar was adopted from an animal shelter when he was a kitten, and joined the rest of the pets that we have living at Steere House.

The Doctor belives he wasn’t the friendly type, and would hide under the bed or stare out of the window all day long.

On a summer morning in 2006, when the day-shift nurse called Mary, called him over. ‘David,’ she said, ‘I’d like to show you something in room 310.’ “As we walked in the room, we found Mrs Davis, who had colon cancer that had spread everywhere, lying on her back, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow. As I approached, the head of a black-and-white tabby cat slowly rose up from beneath the sheets. The cat’s ears perked up and he glanced at me with questioning eyes. Then, with a look of resignation, he rested his head back on his front paws and purred softly while he nestled against Mrs Davis’s right leg.

‘I know this is weird, David,’ said Nurse Mary, ‘but the thing is, Oscar never spends any time with the patients. He usually goes off and hides, mostly in my office. Lately, though, a couple of us have noticed that he’s spending more time with certain residents - patients who are about to die.’

The doctor didn’t believe it but Mary continued, ‘You know, Oscar wandered into another patient’s room right before she died yesterday.’

As he had left the hospital and drove across town his phone rang. It was Mary. ‘Mrs Davis died a few minutes after you left,’ she said. On another occasion she said, ‘I wanted to let you know that Ellen Sanders has passed away. Oscar was there at the bedside, just like all the others. He’s made about five or six visits since Mrs Davis died.’

According to the doctor, although some of these patients’ deaths were not surprising, the timing of them was sometimes rather unexpected. Some had given no indication that they were terminally ill. None of the medical staff, himself included, thought they were even sick, let alone close to death, but that cat sensed something else.

The doctor continues, ‘As I remember it, I suspect Oscar’s first patient was Marion McCullough. Her son, Jack, used to bring Oscar into the room with him because his mother loved cats. Oscar wouldn’t stay very long, but as she got sicker, he would stay longer. On the day Marion died, Oscar jumped on to her bed and sat down beside her. But the thing that finally made me a believer was a death that occurred several months later. By then, a number of people were beginning to talk about Oscar’.

‘Ralph Reynolds was dying, and we were trying to do everything that we could to make him as comfortable as possible. We believed that he was close to death and one of the aides put Oscar on the bed and announced to us that if the patient were dying, Oscar should be present. But Oscar looked at all of us as if we were mad and ran out of the room’.

‘Ralph hung on for another 36 hours. But, sure enough, just four hours before he finally passed away, we found Oscar, pacing up and down outside his closed door. When we opened the door, he dashed straight for the bed and leapt up next to Ralph. He curled up there and refused to budge. A few hours later, Ralph was gone. Oscar didn’t leave his side until the funeral director came.’

So how does Oscar know the exact last hours of a patient?

There is a plausible biological explanation for the so-called ‘sweet smell of death’ says Dr. Dosa. ‘As cells die, carbohydrates are degraded into many different oxygenated compounds, including various types of ketones - chemical mixtures known for their fragrant aroma. Could it be, perhaps, that Oscar simply smells an elevated level of a chemical compound released prior to someone’s death? It is certainly clear that animals have a refined sense of smell that goes well beyond that of humans.

It has been suggested that dogs could be trained to identify microscopic quantities of certain biochemicals excreted by cancer cells on the breaths of lung and breast cancer patients. Is it outlandish to suggest that Oscar has learned how to pick up on a specific smell emitted in the final hours of a patient’s life?

Oscar’s peculiar ability appears to be as real as it is mysterious, and he continues to hold vigils over departing patients says the Doctor. Oscar sure appears to be a special member on this earth, and he seem to provide comfort on one’s last moments.

- Chamari Senanayake