Oscar the Cat ...the Enlightened Cat...

Oscar was born in 2005. I don’t know the day, date or month. I have no idea how he happened to be in an animal shelter though he was cute. He got adopted by Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island (U.S.) as a therapy cat (Cats are known for making people comfortable). He wasn’t that friendly as a therapist and he once even bit a doc. His mission is different, it seems.

When he became a member of that Hospital, he was six months old (There are more therapy cats in that Nursing home). He grew up in the third floor which has the Dementia department (Dementia is a disorder where a person (usually elderly) face problems to reason, think , remember etc. Has links to Alzheimer’s). Some of the staff members happen to notice something. Whenever a patient died, Oscar was in the room.

That was the turning point. And then Oscar got closely observed by the staff, may be especially by Dr.David Dosa (I assume so coz it was he who told the world about Oscar).

Like doctors, Oscar too goes for rounds in the hospital. He enters some room, jumps up to the bed where the patient is lying and sniffs the air. If he don’t find anything odd, he moves on to the next room. If he smell ‘something’, he stays with that patient and sometimes nuzzle the patient. Within a short while, the patient dies.

Not just one or two, but so far Oscar predicted 50 deaths with 100% accuracy. Once when he tried to enter a room, the room was closed and he waited outside for 25 minutes. These days, if the staff see him cuddle with any patient, they immediately inform the patient’s relatives and many a times, they come with a priest.

Sometimes the relatives may not like a cat sitting with the patient and in such case the staff will move the car out. But Oscar will wait outside the door strolling and saying lots of ‘Meaow meaow’ and goes back to his room once the soul leave the body. If he don’t smell any more death, he goes back to his desk.

Oscar

How do this cat do this? I read many theories by many doctors and people from scientific field including a stupid theory by a qualified doc that when somebody is about to die, he/she becomes immobile and the cat finds it and sits there so that it can sit there comfortably (not verbatim). I wonder how a doctor can make such a statement? But many others say that it can smell some hormone that gets released at the last moment.

But there was this incident. Once Oscar was sitting with a patient and all the relatives were there in the room (since the hospital ppl called them) and there was this grandchild of that dying patient too. The child asked

“What is that cat doing here?”

And the mother answered:

“He is here to help Grandma get to heaven”

Whatever it be, one thing is sure. As long as Oscar is there, nobody in that ward is going to die alone. And he sees off the soul with love and compassion.