Oscar the Cat

In 2005 at 6 months, Oscar was 1 of 6 cats adopted by Steere House Nursing Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

As a therapy cat in the dementia unit, Oscar took his time adjusting to his new job and home, but it wasn’t long before he began making his own rounds, sniffing and observing patients. He seemed rather indifferent to most, except for a select few he would identify and curl up with on their bed. The patients he choose to be near would then die a few hours later.

After 20-30 times of seeing Oscar with patients near their end, the staff of Steere House started paying closer attention and soon realized that there was something very special about Oscar. Oscar was so precise with his assessment that a protocol by the staff was put into place that his mere presence bedside with a patient required that the patient’s family was to be called in anticipation of death. No one quite knows how Oscar can sense when a person is near the end. The best scientific guess is that Oscar has an ability to smell the biochemicals that cells give off when they start to break down.In the end, Oscar has predicted over 100 deaths of residents hours before they passed.