If Oscar comes a-knockin', just say your prayers and get ready to go . . .

[OneBlueSky]

Book profiles furry angel of death: Oscar the cat

http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?articleId=673841&categoryId=17

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sun Jan 31, 02:12 PM
The scientist in Dr. David Dosa was skeptical when first told that Oscar, an aloof cat kept by a nursing home, regularly predicted patients' deaths by snuggling alongside them in their final hours.

Dosa's doubts eroded after he and his colleagues tallied about 50 correct calls made by Oscar over five years, a process he explains in a book released this week, "Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat." (Hyperion, $23.99) The feline's bizarre talent astounds Dosa, but he finds Oscar's real worth in his fierce insistence on being present when others turn away from life's most uncomfortable topic: death.

"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. "He was there when they couldn't be."

Dosa, 37, a geriatrician and professor at Brown University, works on the third floor of the Steere House, which treats patients with severe dementia. It's usually the last stop for people so ill they cannot speak, recognize their spouses and spend their days lost in fragments of memory.

more . . .

http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?articleId=673841&categoryId=17

[graywarrior]

1. I thought this was going to be about our Oscar

That book should be out soon.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. So did I...

:-)