I read an article about Oscar yesterday, and there are other explanations in between “cats can sense Death” and “confirmation bias.” For instance, if they give dying patients steam-heated blankets, the cat could just be snuggling up for that reason.
Chances are, Oscar does visit other patients who aren’t dying, on occasion. I’d rather see someone actually track his behavior than make credulous guesses in the media.
Oh Yeah, I want the Cat 'O Death. I’d make sure everyone knew his talents and release him to roam the cubicles at work.
[QUOTE=dropzone]
I’ve gotten car repairs that caused my dogs to not recognize my car until they relearned its sounds. Many animals have better senses than humans–plain ol’ one-though-five, not including six–and to attribute an action to some extra sense when it is easily explained by something else is silly and indicates a lack of reasoning ability that can be learned, were one so inclined.
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True dat.
My horse (I’m told by others) neighs a welcome when I come down the driveway into the parking area of the barn, well before he can see my vehicle, but that’s because he hears and recognizes the sounds it makes. When I changed cars last fall it took him a week or so to relearn the association.
I’d bet this cat is picking up physical cues that make him prefer to be near the dying person, for whatever obscure reason makes sense to his feline brain.
[QUOTE=tomndebb]
Well, it is certainly true that each of our cats believe themselves to be the center of the universe.
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That’s not what I meant but it’s certainly true. 
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip]
A spinoff of the show Crossing Over with John Edward in which the cold-reading “psychic” is replaced as host by the 2004 Kentucky Derby-winning racehorse.
Preliminary talks are said to be stalled over Edward’s holding exclusive rights to portray horseshit as psychic ability on television.
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OK, now I get it. I did see that show once, and evidently blocked the name of it from my mind, for fear of my head exploding at the thought of those people eating up what he had to say. I remember thinking, please let let all those audience members be paid to act that way…
There is a saying among handicappers, “Horse sense is what prevents horses from betting on people.” If Smarty gets the the job, he will have to count on a human audience I would guess. 
Thanks for the explanation.
It’s possible that Oscar can smell or hear or feel something different in the nearly dead, and chooses to snuggle up with them as they die. That story doesn’t even come close to proving anything, though. In fact, the story stinks worse than UFO sightings, but maybe that’s just me.
How many of the deaths were from toxoplasmosis screwing over their already frail immune systems?
tomndebb states that cats aren’t carrion eaters, but surely in the wild they might take a nibble from a freshly dead large mammal? Don’t people sometimes die in their flats/apartments and have themselves partially devoured by their starving pets? Why would cats turn down a free lunch?
Oscar “works” on a terminal dementia ward, so while patients may push him away, it’s unlikely.
I don’t attribute any compassion to the cat. I think he may be sniffing something - organ failure produces some pretty subtle smells, some of which I can sense as a human. Can’t imagine what it would be like as a cat.
He also grew up in that ward, so there may be subtle cues he’s detecting that the humans can’t quite put together but cat intelligence can. A combination of patient behavior, patient smell, caregiver behavior and other things.
Why is everyone ignoring what Fish said in post #21? I’ve also read the same thing in several reports-they give the dying heated blankets to compensate for poor circulation. If the facility had 10 cats, it would be a safe bet that most, if not all, of them would head straight for those heated blankets.
There is no mystery at all here.
I would suppose that many of the patients who aren’t near death get electric blankets so if the cat doesn’t snuggle to them, it must not be the heat.
Does Medicaid pay for this “cat scan”?
[QUOTE=tomndebb]
I don’t see the problem.
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One problem is that the article says nothing about people who have died that he did *not *snuggle up to. Shouldn’t those count as mistakes as well?
[QUOTE=MerryMagdalen]
Oscar “works” on a terminal dementia ward, so while patients may push him away, it’s unlikely.
I don’t attribute any compassion to the cat. I think he may be sniffing something - organ failure produces some pretty subtle smells, some of which I can sense as a human. Can’t imagine what it would be like as a cat.
He also grew up in that ward, so there may be subtle cues he’s detecting that the humans can’t quite put together but cat intelligence can. A combination of patient behavior, patient smell, caregiver behavior and other things.
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Animals do have compassion and all the other emotions of humans, as one who has rescued strays for many years can attest.
Just saw the account of Oscar on the news. He has been accurate in every case, more than 25 of them. When the nurses see him pick a patient they call the family so they can be there at the death of their loved one.
The best way to describe it to this group is through the Jungian concept of “collective unconscious.” We are all connected through our consciousness. Every living thing is in the Oneness of all things. Animals never leave the Oneness and have access to information us humans who have left the Oneness don’t. Animals can detect natural disasters before man can detect them on his instruments. During earthquates, volcano eruptions, tsunamis and such, wild animals are known to start leaving the area before man has a hint of what is happening. The old tale of rats deserting a sinking ship is very true.
“Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls,
it tolls for thee.”
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
One problem is that the article says nothing about people who have died that he did *not *snuggle up to. Shouldn’t those count as mistakes as well?
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I guess that would depend on whether one looks at this as a typical news filler of a mildly interesting anecdote or whether some profound statement regarding death or animal senses is being claimed.
As I noted earlier, there is a condition named “actively dying” that hospice workers can recognize. That does not mean that no person ever dies without passing through that condition. If a person simply dies without going through the “actively dying” phase, then that person will not give off clues that are recognizble by either human or feline observers.
Currently, we have an odd story of a cat that appears to recognize some percentage of people dying and gives (inadvertant) warning to the facility’s staff, allowing them to notify family so that the family can be there at the time of death.
Deb’s reaction when she heard the story was that the facility staff should have recognized the signs and made the call, anyway, but it is possible that in an understaffed facility, the cat appearing on the bed provides an extra buffer of notification.
If someone was proposing that the cat had miraculous psychic powers or that we should try to train cats to live in nursing homes and warn us of impending deaths, I would have a problem with that. I just don’t see the big need to debunk a story that has not really made any seriously outrageous claims, even if it would not stand up to peer-reviewed analysis.
[QUOTE=Staggerlee]
How many of the deaths were from toxoplasmosis screwing over their already frail immune systems?
tomndebb states that cats aren’t carrion eaters, but surely in the wild they might take a nibble from a freshly dead large mammal? Don’t people sometimes die in their flats/apartments and have themselves partially devoured by their starving pets? Why would cats turn down a free lunch?
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You figure most of those bed ridden, final stage dementia patients are spending a lot of time sifting through the clay of the litter box?
I’m not sure why the concern over the cats taking a nibble. Cats who are, as you note, starving, will eat what they can, but Oscar looked pretty well fed in his photos. Beyond that, if the reaction of the staff is to call the family, you now have one or more visitors standing around the bed, along with staff who are expected to monitor the patient’s condition so that they can “call” the death and/or notify the coroner, etc. I suspect that even a little tiny nibble would be out of the question.
Regarding seizure alerting dogs: As someone in the Service Dog World – they do exist, and they are pretty special. It is not a trait that can be bred or something that can be trained. Some dogs exhibit the behavior, others do not. Some patients do get that pre-seizure “aura” thing (usually that’s actually seizure activity in its own right - simple partial seizures where consciousness is not affected) and can sense a full-blown tonic-clonic or complex partial seizure is coming. For many patients, though, seizures can strike out of the blue, without warning at all. Some dogs are able to alert BEFORE the seizures or the simple-partial-seizures hit. This gives the patient the time to sit, or get someplace safe. We also train the dogs to prop the patient up so they do not roll onto their backs (reducing the risk of aspiration) and keeping the patient still or in one place (especially in the case of complex-partial seizures, where some patients can be extremely confused and keep walking/moving during and after the seizure itself).
As for Oscar… I sense there’s a lot of wishful thinking going on. Still, it’s an interesting phenomenon, if there truly is something behind it. Animals are attuned to human emotions. That said, maybe this cat is just an emo kitty who is really into this whole death thing… 
[QUOTE=tomndebb]
I’m not sure why the concern over the cats taking a nibble. Cats who are, as you note, starving, will eat what they can, but Oscar looked pretty well fed in his photos.
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I’ve heard claims for years that one difference between a cat and dog is that a cat will begin eating it’s owner right after death, while a dog will wait days. Usually leading into a speech about how much more loyal dogs are. Mentioned in a SDMB Staff Report here, although not very conclusively. Personally, even if true I’d expect it to be more a matter of cats being picky eaters, and unwilling to let meat decay.
As for Oscar, animals have senses more sensitive in some areas than ours, and they interpet what they get differently. What seems impossible to detect to us ( at least without the proper equipment, and an idea what to look for ) could be blatantly obvious to them.
[QUOTE=lekatt]
Animals do have compassion and all the other emotions of humans, as one who has rescued strays for many years can attest.
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You could “attest” to it, but I can’t imagine there’s a way to prove this.
[QUOTE=gigi]
You could “attest” to it, but I can’t imagine there’s a way to prove this.
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There are many instances of animals that show compassion, but it is easy to say it is something else. There is a video of a cat that took in homeless baby squirrels.
[QUOTE=lekatt]
There are many instances of animals that show compassion, but it is easy to say it is something else. There is a video of a cat that took in homeless baby squirrels.
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Yep, it’s easy to say it’s instinct to care for baby animals. I also don’t think a cat is being “evil” or feeling anything in particular when it instinctively kills a squirrel for food.
The Washington Post ran a brief but interesting interview with Dr. David Dosa, the author of the original article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Dosa seems like a level-headed sort. His own theory is that Oscar is picking up on some smell which is too subtle for human senses. Also, according to Dr. Dosa, Oscar has been present at every death that has taken place in the facility, and otherwise tends to steer clear of people.
I think in this situation it makes sense to apply Oscar’s [sic] Razor - there’s no reason to jump to supernatural explanations when the existing five senses can explain things reasonably enough.
[QUOTE=ebb]
The Washington Post ran a brief but interesting interview with Dr. David Dosa, the author of the original article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
[snip]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/07/27/DI2007072700984.html
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Heh – did you read the Jay Leno quotes in the Q&A in that article?