Table of Content
- Meet Oscar, a Nursing Home Cat Who Predicts Death
- Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat
- News & Interviews
- '1619 Project' Creator Nikole Hannah-Jones Slams Backlash, Book-Banning Efforts
- Adult Bib / Dinner Scarf - Seniors, Nursing Home, Handicap Clothing Protection - Berry/Green Floral Cats
- catstermag
The story was initially published in a medical journal. The story would have been better served by taking that essay, putting it into lay terms and publishing it as a magazine article.Nonetheless, I learned quite a bit about the disease of dementia, and the book was an easy and quick read. I found this book while searching for non-fiction audiobooks about animals. Some reviews said that it’s actually more about dementia/end-of-life care than it is about cats, which also appealed to me, so I checked it out. Oscar is a cat that lives at a hospice and has an uncanny ability to know when residents are going to pass away.
"People actually were taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass," Dosa said. In 2013, in Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, grown-up Dan Torrance is aided at a hospice by a prescient cat who can sense when people are about to die. King stated in an interview that Oscar served as an inspiration to the story. A cat can predict deaths at a nursing home in Rhode Island, according to a new book by scientist Dr. David Dosa.
Meet Oscar, a Nursing Home Cat Who Predicts Death
Dr Dosa had written an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, and the story started to build. Television news articles, a book, a movie was proposed. Oscar the cat ignores most of the patients at the nursing home where he lives until they are dying. Without fail, he shows up within 24 hours before a patient dies and stands watch until they are gone. He brings comfort to the patients and their families as they pass to the next life.
Often he would smell the air around the patients feet. He would stay with the patient until the undertaker came. This book was selected by my local library's book club as its May 2012 read. I really enjoyed reading it and realize that more and more I truly am a "cat person" and a sucker for a good cat story. In one instance, Oscar visited a woman who had a very severe blood clot in her leg, wrapping himself around her cold limb and staying by her side until she passed away. Another time, when the staff believed that Oscar was done with his rounds, he actually returned a few hours later to lay with one particular patient until he died.
Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat
It seems I am in the minority here, but I thought this book was just okay. It was billed as a story about a cat's ability to sense when dementia patients in a nursing home were approaching death and his dedication to remaining with them during their final hours. The real focus of the book, however, was on Dr. Dosa's experience treating his patients with dementia. That subject is certainly important and interesting, but the approach of revealing almost the entire story through dialogue between himself and the nursing staff and/or family members of the patients wore thin after a while.
Several years ago, my now late cat went outside to meet his good friend, the kitty next door. That day, he walked up to her in his usual friendly way, but then, suddenly hissed, swiped at her face, and ran back into the house. And second, he had just turned on his best pal for no apparent reason. Two hours later I went outside and discovered that she had crawled underneath a car and died.
News & Interviews
In 2014, the comedy film Just Before I Go features a cat seen curling up next to Greta's dying grandmother. Some have argued that Oscar did not have an ability to predict death, and that this was a case of confirmation bias. As of 2015, it was believed that Oscar accurately predicted 100 deaths. Photography Courtesy Karen Hollish/Pima Animal Care Center.
When he senses a person is dying, he jumps on their bed and settles down to keep vigil until the undertakers collect the body. Watching my own mother pass away from cancer and seeing how her dog interacted with her I believe that Oscar has that special gift too...the gift to comfort someone in the darkest of times. We all must die alone but with an animal lying by your side, purring or just snuggling I truly believe it brings comfort not only to the person who is passing on but those who are there with them. The author starts off not believing that a cat could be capable of showing this kind of knowledge or empathy and by researching he finds it to be true. This book gives me hope and less fear of death since I have 4 pets.
Relevant articles delivered to your inbox every week. Dosa learns to live for the moment, much like Oscar, who delights in naps and chin scratches or the patient who recovers enough to walk the hall holding the hand of the husband she'll eventually forget. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The patients were examined, no staff members sensed anything was wrong, and then Oscar would enter the room and sit vigil on the bed of the resident. After a few hours all of these patients peacefully passed away. Suddenly doctors and staff took notice, as to who Oscar choose to visit, and it wasn't long before Oscar had created quite a stir. This ordinary cat instinctively seemed to know when the end of life was near. This was a heartwarming and heart-wrenching book about an awful disease called dementia. It wreaks havoc in the lives of the loved ones who are to care for their rapidly declining family member.
My wife had started the book a couple weeks earlier but had to put it down. Her mom died of complications of Alzheimer’s; we had watched the symptoms emerge and urged testing, which confirmed our worst suspicions. Those memories still too close to the surface forced my wife, a nurse, to turn away from traveling Oscar’s road, for now. There is one couple, in particular, whose story winds through most of the book. The husband is totally dedicated, sometimes to the point of overwhelming obsession, to his wife and her spiraling downhill plight.
The staff have grown so confident of Oscar’s ESP that they now inform family members when he snuggles up with one of the patients. Oscar is a shelter cat who lives in the dementia wing at Steere House, a nursing home in Rhode Island. Geriatrician, Dr. David Dosa, notices Oscar’s uncanny ability to sense when a resident is about to die.
He worries about losing control of his life in old age, much as his patients have lost theirs. In 2009, the 18th episode in the 5th season of the TV show House, "Here Kitty", involved a cat that had predicted numerous deaths by curling up next to dying person's bedside. Angela Lutz is a freelance writer who loves yoga, fancy coffee and the warm patch of sunlight on the living room floor. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with her three cats, Bubba Lee Kinsey, Phoenix and Salvador.
Dr. Dosa was initially skeptical about Oscar's ability, but once he became convinced, he decided to interview the families that Oscar had comforted as they lost a loved one. This book is primarily about the stories behind the patients in the dementia/Alzheimer's units and how their family members dealt with losing a parent or spouse to dementia. This book is a very easy read; I read it in two days. Dr. Dosa, not a cat expert, becomes more and more captivated the longer he watches Oscar. He decides to interview the relatives/caregivers of some of the people Oscar sat vigil for in hopes of gaining insight into the feline’s secret. It is clear from these interviews that Oscar made a hugely positive impression on these people.
She saw how much having a robot pet friend helped her father, which is what led her to create this website and advocate to spread word about robot pets and how they can help both children and the elderly. On the note of feeling secure, an owner can also be assured that the robot cat will not wander off contrary to its living counterpart. Given how cats are known to be independent animals who tend to venture alone outside the home, these robot felines are sure to stay on one’s lap or wherever one would like to secure them. A resident may leave the site, but they can always come back to find their robot feline friend exactly where they left them – safe and secure.
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