Can we put this cat in Dick's hidey hole?

[lonestarnot]

Oscar the cat predicts patients' deaths

By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 25, 7:25 PM ET

By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 25, 7:25 PM ET


PROVIDENCE, R.I. - 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 they have less than four hours to live.


"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

More here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_fe_st/death_cat

[TheBaldyMan]

1. good kitty k&r

[spanone]

2. the cat would die

[VP505]

3. If not

poor kitty would feel tortured.

[smokey nj]

4. Darth would rip the poor thing's head off and drink his blood.

[lonestarnot]

6. Cat would scratch his eyes out first.

[Strawman]

5. Ha! I saw that story

Didn't think of that angle though.

[iamtechus]

7. Logical explanation

One possible explanation for the cat's behavior is that it hears the patient's "death rattle".
As the person is approaching death they lose the cough reflex and develop a rattling sound caused
by air passing through the mucous collecting in their throat. This usually happens in the last
few hours of life. The dying person is "purring".

[lonestarnot]

9. Ah yes. Thought it must be something like that.

[blogslut]

8. Noooooo!

Teh Cheney would eat the kitty! No! No! No!

[lonestarnot]

11. Kitty too quick for that Dick.

[Eurobabe]

10. Darth too dangerous, don't subject the cat

to his miasmas.