" When death comes calling, so does Oscar the cat"

Have you heard about it? What do you think?

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/07/25/death.cat.ap/index.html

"Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means the patient has less than four hours to live. The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses. After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours. Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill. Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

 

I've heard about it, and I think its nonsense and CNN should feel a bit ashamed for running with a story like this, even though toward the end they do have the following:

People tend to notice the hits and forget the misses and can create what they believe are meaningful patterns out of nothing. Its told in a purely anecdotal basis, which isn't a valid way to argue that a phenomenon is true, and it doesn't look at other potential causes even if there is some sort of correlation.

Its stories like this that lead to perpetuating illogical superstition.

 

I have stopped watching CNN. They are just a rung below Fox News on the ladder of contrived journalism.

 

When i heard this story on CNN, i wondered where in the world they got the lead for it...someone called CNN and said, "Um, yeah, so there's this cat that predicts death." It just sounded so crazy I was wondering what producer followed the story...weird.

 

Hey, this is a cpuple minutes from where I live! It figures that whenever RHode Island is actually in the news, it for some really weird reason.

Animals have different senses of perception than humans, that's proven. Maybe this also allows some animals to "sense" when death is near, like maybe a body starts giving off a scent when it's near the end of its natural life that humans just can't smell or have been able to detect yet?

 

I wonder how the actual patients react to Oscar. I know the article indicated that the hospital hung a plaque supporting Oscar's "compassionate care," but how do people react when Oscar comes around?

Would be comforting knowing that Oscar seems to predict death, or do patients try and run and hide when he comes around?

 

He's devouring the souls as they exit the body. You heard it here first. Evil, evil cat.

 

Burn him @ the stake!!

 

Only if he weighs as much as a duck. This isn't Vietnam, Vivec, there are rules.

 

But could we build a bridge out of him?

Kimball Kinnison

 

I think I remember some stories a few years ago about service dogs that can predict seizures.

It's possible that Oscar the cat smells something or senses something.

 

KK



Who knew you had a sense of humor?

 

As I've said before, it was surgically removed when I became a mod. Fortunately the moderator insurance plan pays for humor restoration surgery once you step down.

Kimball Kinnison

 

Possible, however a claim of any nature should be studied, not just anecdotal.

 

Well, may be that's because you don't like cats.

[image=http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/30/30688/folders/232364/1819379kissy.gif]

 

Call me Looney [really, please do] but I do buy the story. I think animals know when something is going on with the humans around them. I had a cat that knew when someone wasn't feeling well and would go to them and "lay paws" on them. A friend had a sprain ankle and he laid down next to her and gently rubbed her foot. Another one had TMJ and he rubs her jawbone.

If dogs can predict seizures then I will gladly believe that cats can predict the upcoming death of a nursing home patient.

LOL @ Kimball

 

This is an old story. Didn't the cat turn up dead after the story ran in the media and press?

I think it did. Poor pooti-tat.

Taken out by the senior nursing home mafia.

 

Nope, my correct bias is that I'm biased against anecdotal pseudoscience and prefer actual science.

 

I'll laugh when you realize how dull that is, Lowie.

Cats are weird.

 

Science is dull?

 

No, not allowing your imagination to get away from you is, however.

 

i find what science finds, and suggests, to be more than fasinating enough to require going with fully made up things.

example, speculation on life elsewhere in the universe is fascinating, imaginative, and can be scientific.

 

I like cats, and I think thay though the above "news" may not entirely be true (from your "scientific" point of view), the cat is still a good animal. Not only dog is human's friend.

[image=http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/30/30688/folders/232783/1817409kittenblue.gif]

 

"scientific" really shouldn't be in quotes.
Its an accurate and real term.

Though I'd agree with the quotes on "news" because this isn't news, its old wives' tales being treated as news by a source thats supposed to be reputable. No offense to any old wives that may be present.

 

That was funny.

I agree, the topic I started about Oscar the cat wasn't serious or scientific. I'm sorry.
Sometimes people are in need of a laugh, you know...