Teno and Dosa hypothesized that Oscar was responding to the smell of chemicals released when someone died or some other odor emitted during death. Īs of 2015, it was believed that Oscar accurately predicted 100 deaths. Oscar made international headlines in 2007 after the New England Journal of Medicine published an article about him by Steere House geriatrician Dr. But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours.' Īfter Oscar accurately predicted 25 deaths, staff started calling family members of residents as soon as they discovered him sleeping next to a patient in order to notify them and give them an opportunity to say goodbye before the impending death. Joan Teno, a physician at Steere House, clarified that 'it's not that the cat is consistently there first. It seemed to staff as if Oscar were trying to comfort and provide company to people as they died. Death prediction Īfter Oscar had been at Steere House for around six months, staff noticed that Oscar often chose to nap next to resident patients who died within several hours of his arrival. Oscar was described as generally aloof and 'not a cat that's friendly to people', sometimes, for example, hissing at people when he wanted to be left alone. Steere House, which bills itself as a 'pet friendly' facility that allows a variety of pets to visit and reside there, is a 41-bed unit that treats people with end-stage Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses, most of whom are generally unaware of their surroundings.

Oscar was a therapy cat that was one of six cats adopted in 2005 by the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. Oscar died at the age of 17, on February 22, 2022, after a brief illness. Dosa's 2010 book, Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat. Oscar's abilities were also the subject of Dr. Hypotheses for this ability include that Oscar was picking up on the lack of movement in such patients or that he could smell biochemicals released by dying cells.

Dosa, Oscar appeared able to predict the impending death of terminally ill patients by choosing to nap next to them a few hours before they died. He came to public attention in 2007 when he was featured in an article by geriatrician David Dosa in the New England Journal of Medicine. 2005–February 22, 2022) was a therapy cat who as of 2005 lived in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Making Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa