Mighty Ponygirl alerted me to this bizarre story: This nursing home cat has an uncanny ability to tell who’s about to die and curls up with them. As Mighty says:
OK, now I’m left to wonder … if Oscar isn’t really interested in people, is it really ok to attribute Oscar’s curling up to the terminally ill to some sort of sympathetic desire to comfort the dying?
Maybe he really likes being in a building with a bunch of weak old people.
…In fact, maybe he’s getting really pissed off that he goes through all the trouble of staking these people out and is then removed from the room before he can eat them.
You can’t blame cats. They spend all their lives around the large, hairless monkeys and they have to wonder if we taste better than that damn kibble we feed them. So they wait and watch and on very rare occasions, one actually has the chance to know if we really do taste like raw pork.
Lauren made an LOLcat for the occasion:
62 Responses to “Friday Cat Blog, Human Flesh Is Yummy Edition”
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Hilarious! Kitty kibble iz Peeple!
I emailed a friend about this, a friend who has a penchant for adopting pets, and said “Don’t adopt this cat!”
mmmm…grandma cheezeburgers…..*gurgle, gurgle*
As ever, the wonderful Ape Lad is on the case -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apelad/907462296/
Bad Astronomy Blog has the skeptic’s take on this: http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/07/26/nursing-home-cat-identifies-terminal-patients/
Couple of ways to boost your Friday karma…
I believe the story of Oscar was first published by the nursing home’s doctor and the New England Journal of Medicine picked up on it. Please do not forget that animals have been known to sense things such as earthquakes prior to the actual happening.
You know, I thought this was a cute story and all. I just don’t understand why CBS News led with it last night. Did nothing else happen yesterday?
I have to say, that story creeped me the hell out. It was not cute. At all.
Our younger cat has a strong instinct for how he could take us down — when he play-attacks, he goes straight for the hamstring. Luckily for us, he has stayed the size of a housecat (a large housecat, but still just a cat) and not grown to tiger size the way he was hoping.
IF that cat really is the Grim Reaper’s Valet, and I was in that ward, I’d chunk the grandkids’ chia pet at him everytime he came nosing around. Wouldn’t hold off death, but having some cat basically taunting you at the end just is wrong - tat’s what relatives in the will are for.
I’m in ur nursing home killin ur grannies.
I think this is getting skewed a bit more than it should.
First, Oskar lives on a locked dementia ward that functions as a hospice. In other words, the people who live on that ward are not only out of their trees, they are not long for the world anyway.
Secondly, he isn’t as screwed up as some accounts make him out to be. He has normal interactions with staff members, who are not only sane but consistently around. He swats pens for attention, sits on paperwork to get scritches, and is often friendly to visitors when he’s not doing his rounds. The patients, however, are not very consistent and are in their final times and they act in unpredictable ways that keep him from really connecting with them.
For some reason, he seems to take it as his mission in life to play Anubis and escort the dying to their afterworld with purrs and love. There is speculation that he smells something subtle or hears something. Nobody knows.
In any case, he is apparently pretty uncanny in his timing - he has been known to NOT settle in with people who the doctors think are going to die within an hour, only to return when they are really to die soon ten hours later. He has also tipped off staff to call relatives when imminent death is a total surprise.
So, he’s a pretty normal cat living with a population that doesn’t really connect with the world anyway and marked for demise in any case. As he is very good at predicting death, they keep him around because his presence tips off staff and makes it possible to gather the families to say goodbye. One guy in the globe article I read was both honored and touched that Oscar could purr his animal loving mother and aunt into the after life.
Given how my cats comfort and love my kids when they are cryingly upset or when they are sick or injured, I don’t think this is at all creepy.
My understanding of the situation is similar to Ms. Kate’s. And personally, if I am in that sort of hospice situation when my time is drawing to a close, I hope that there is a cat (or cats) there to see me on my way. Then again, having a cat around makes me feel better in general.
I think it’s cool. But then, I’m kind of creepy. And my grandmother’s in a hospice right now.
I did a lot of my laboring to deliver my kid at home and my cat, who otherwise would NOT snuggle with anyone, stayed right with me, preferring to be very close to me and purred so loudly it nearly rattled my teeth out of my head.
Cats are weird. It’s what makes me like them.
My theory on the cat:
It doesn’t like being disturbed. Dying and dead people don’t move around in their beds as frequently as living people.
Isn’t there probably a quite obvious scientific explanation for this, like maybe the human body gives off a certain smell (detectable to a cat but not to humans) as it starts to die?
I mean, we’re talking about people with terminal illnesses, who are already dying. I’m pretty sure that cat wouldn’t come sit next to the nurse who is about to get into a fatal car accident on her commute home.
That said, I’m almost positive that it has to do with a food source instinct. Cats are carnivores. Humans are meat. This is a feline version of being lost in the desert, growing more and more dehydrated, and seeing the vultures circle in the air above you. It’s their job to know you’re about to be put on the dinner menu.
Well, I guess I’m glad I’m reading this story now, rather than about three weeks ago.
That’s when our cat, after sleeping in exactly the same spot on his cat tree every single night of the two years we’ve had him, suddenly started to insist on sleeping on the bed between my wife and me. D-:
We’re still alive. For now.
I hear humans taste like Whiskas.
The Bad Astronomy link’s got it right. It needs more evidence, though it’s a charming story. Well maybe charming isn’t the right word exactly.
Animals sensing earthquakes is BS though. My cats are at least as startled as I am when they happen and usually can’t be found for hours afterwards.
test
Ok, how do you get rid of that pesky URL thing? Deleting doesn’t work.
My generally idiotic tuxedo cat has an unerring instinct to crawl up and purr in the laps of stressed-out people. He put his front legs around my mom’s neck and purred up a storm for an hour when she was worried about driving through weekend traffic when leaving town - he never even sat on her lap before or since. It’s extremely comforting, and it sounds like Oscar is doing something similar.
My hypothesis is that cats can pick up changes in breathing patterns. Of course, this would be disproven if anyone in Oscar’s unit is on a respirator, but I’m guessing they might not be in a hospice.
this reminds me a lot about the way they say dogs sense fear. which i know is true, due to my general aversion to dogs, and thus extreme fear when one jumps on me, flashes its teeth in my general direction, etc. i’ve always assumed this is because of some physical sign of fear, not because dogs are all magically malicious and shit.
Every pet owners secret fear: We might taste better than what we feed them…
“Ok, how do you get rid of that pesky URL thing? Deleting doesn’t work.”
Same here.
Oh gods of Pandagon, help us in our time of need!…
Not a big problem (it’s kinda cool to have a red Pseudonym), but it don’t go nowhere…
the oponoax: Are small cats scavengers? Dogs bring home nasty dead things, but I’ve never heard of a cat doing more than sniff soemthing that’s more than a few hours gone. The ’senses distress’ theory seems more reasonable- domestic cats are social creatures, and so are wild ones to an extent.
rrp: Your cat’s surprise does not negate the senses of other animals.
Anyone else remember “Dead Like Me”?
My first thought was: “Kitties can be Reapers?”
I think having a death-sensing cat come up and cuddle with you would be just about the best way to go.
Well if anyone can produce non-anecdotal evidence that cats and other animals can sense earthquakes or other natural disasters before they happen, I’d be interested in seeing it.
When we lived in west Texas, our cat would bring home dead snakes and horned toads and drop ‘em on the door-step: “Look what I brought you!”
I don’t think it would be quite so creepy if cats didn’t already have a reputation for being harbingers of death or familiars of the Devil.
While I am a born-and-raised cat lover (from a family of cat lovers), I know a lot of people who are afraid of or hate cats.
I worry that this will be taken as another excuse for certain sick individuals to act out their hatred…
I think that whoever put up that badastronomy blog didn’t read around the edges too much. There is healthy skeptacism, but there is also lazy skepticism.
This hasn’t happened once. It hasn’t happened twice.
This has happened more than 25 times with no false negatives.
The staff has been trying to catch the cat in “false positives” and “false negatives”, including “people near death lying around quietly a lot”. The cat consitently makes the final call. The “well, the cat is attracted to the special attention” isn’t floating either, if you read on. Oscar has “outed” near death patients who were not even on death watch. He has also ignored those that were thought to be near death, or a couple days or more away but very ill and getting a lot of attention.
Remember: this was in the NEJM as an essay, but still in the NEJM. Not the same as the WWN! It would be interesting if they could figure out what it is the cat is detecting and how - cortisol secretion? Ketones?
There are also many, many stories of people dying alone at home and being nibbled on by the cats before they’re discovered. I’d have a hard time believing that cats won’t eat something they didn’t kill — animals will eat what’s there (for instance, a lot of archaeological research indicates that ancient humans often preferred to happen upon a dead mammoth than to have to hunt one from scratch). Besides which, very few housecats subsist on food they’ve killed themselves, anyway. if your cat will eat cat food, or a hunk of raw ground beef, why wouldn’t it eat some other non-living source of food?
When we lived in west Texas, our cat would bring home dead snakes and horned toads and drop ‘em on the door-step: “Look what I brought you!”
Our cat brings home mutilated chipmunks, but doesn’t eat them. He eats birds, and his sister goes for Despereaux.
I used to toss them out, but the local fox comes for them overnight.
This would be an interesting question, but also forces us to ask, when exactly do they happen? Is it at the first plate movement way down deep? When a specific detector records seismic motion? When my plates and glasses suddenly fall off the shelf? I could understand, say, snakes sensing an earthquake prior to our sensory abilities to detect such an event. But, that just leads to more fun questions. When is the starting point? What kinds of detection and measurement? What are the sensory routes?
Ms Kate: Necrons?
Have you seen this?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/27/121636/772
hahahaha!
But my cats’ surprise does put a dent in regarding animals as mystical beings that can just sense things we mere humans can’t know.
Ok, in all seriousness, I think that animals are aware of inputs that we aren’t, they way that we do things that they can’t. But I don’t think it’s magic.
You’re all missing it! Look, if we all lived in this place and just kept the cat out of our room, then we’d be immortal! Think of the possibilities!
I’d have a hard time believing that cats won’t eat something they didn’t kill — animals will eat what’s there (for instance, a lot of archaeological research indicates that ancient humans often preferred to happen upon a dead mammoth than to have to hunt one from scratch).
Not to be totally morbid but … it’s the freshness. Meat preserved in a can or by freezing/refrigeration — yay! Meat starting to go bad, not so much. The dead people nibbled by their cats (and dogs) are probably reasonably fresh.
MAJeff, it’s could be the detection of infrasound, that is vibrations below the range of human hearing.
I was living in San Jose during the Loma Prieta earthquake, so I found the following interesting as well:
Link
As was this:
a href=”http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/animalphysiology/websites/2006/cawestfall/Magnetic%20Navigation.htm”>Link
As the BA in Biology, BS in Medical Science, I think that it’s very probable that during the last hours, unique biomolecules or unique concentrations of ordinary biomolecules would accumulate during the last hours of life.
There has been research with dogs being trained to sniff people for cancer that seems to work on a similar principle.
Found this on Daily Kos (by Dood Abides) http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5693/oscaralbertoii7.jpg
Go look. You will enjoy. It’s not a LOLcat, but it’s still good.
MAJeff, it’s could be the detection of infrasound, that is vibrations below the range of human hearing.
I was living in San Jose during the Loma Prieta earthquake, so I found the following interesting as well:
Link
As was this:
a href=”http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/animalphysiology/websites/2006/cawestfall/Magnetic%20Navigation.htm”>Link
As the BA in Biology, BS in Medical Science, I think that it’s very probable that during the last hours, unique biomolecules or unique concentrations of ordinary biomolecules would accumulate during the last hours of life.
There has been research with dogs being trained to sniff people for cancer that seems to work on a similar principle.
You’re all missing it! Look, if we all lived in this place and just kept the cat out of our room, then we’d be immortal! Think of the possibilities!
If there is a cat …
MAJeff, it’s could be the detection of infrasound, that is vibrations below the range of human hearing.
I was living in San Jose during the Loma Prieta earthquake, so I found the following interesting as well:
Link
As was this:
a href=”http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/animalphysiology/websites/2006/cawestfall/Magnetic%20Navigation.htm”>Link
As the BA in Biology, BS in Medical Science, I think that it’s very probable that during the last hours, unique biomolecules or unique concentrations of ordinary biomolecules would accumulate during the last hours of life.
There has been research with dogs being trained to sniff people for cancer that seems to work on a similar principle.
One of the interesting things is that it seems that a fair number of dying people kinda-sorta choose when to die. I don’t mean they just say “you know what? Half past 2 sounds good.” But I’ve heard (and in some cases seen) situations where a person just kind of decided that it was time, and died very soon afterwards.
Maybe it’s because they decided to stop fighting; who knows?
But it doesn’t surprise me if there’s something that can be seen and, for whatever reason, the cat can notice it.
It’s an interesting story, but I think it’d be risky to think it was meaningful. There are a lot of mundane explanations for why this might happen, and it’s unlikely that we’ll find out what that explanation is.
(I mean, I’d *like* someone to try to figure it out, I just don’t think we have enough information to start with.)
EdgyB:
Actually, no. If you keep the cat out of the room, you’d just be simultaneously dead and not dead, not immortal.
Cats aren’t typically scavengers. They eat dead owners because the owners stop feeding them kibble. They tend to eat all the kibble first.
This is bringing to mind the scene from Superman with the little fluffy yippy dogs that were left alone in the mansion - “weren’t there two of them?”
Anyways. If dogs can be trained to sense cancer, blood sugar levels, and oncoming epileptic fits, a cat can darn well learn to smell oncoming death when raised around it. I would be interested to find out what exactly the body gives off, though; someone mentioned ketones, for example. It would be worth their while, I would think, since most hospices don’t have an Oscar, they could test for whatever it is elsewhere. Just a thought.
“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.`”
Am I the only one thinking that maybe its the damned cat that’s killing everyone?
Just wondering.
Am I the only one thinking that maybe its the damned cat that’s killing everyone?
I think the cat is sucking out the old people’s breath, but I seem to be the only one.
The medievals (and earlier) actually had listed the symptoms for impending death, which did include particular odors.
Also, there’s a theory that what you’re getting with earthquakes and sensing by animals/fish/whatever is changes in the nearby electromagnetic fields. Due to the fact that certain rocks (like granite) have stuff like feldspar in them, which is a piezoelectric material. Usually we use that sort of stuff the other way around–put a voltage across the material, expand or contract the stuff. Here it would be a cash of squash the material, cause changes in voltages….
In Cut Bank/Glacier Community…in the day
Where we catered to a lot of Blackfeet patients many/several of the very elderly gra’mas we had ‘pass through’ one way or another would keen throughout the-night-of-the-dying of ‘terminal’ others about them.
Never elderly men.
Pretty regular thing, we learned to listen - then.
The Cat’s Diary
Day 983 of my captivity.
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.
They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.
The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.
Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet.
I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am. Idiots!
There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.
Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.
I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.
For now…
I don’t get cats. I mean I like them and everything and I would probably have one if it wasn’t for my allergies.
But there is something so impenetrable about their minds. Dogs are so much easier to understand.
Trystero, did you ever read Spacetime for Springers?
Animals do have some pretty good senses so it’s not that surprising:
elephants can communicate through the ground over 12 miles;
a dog can tell when this woman will faint.
The title of this post reminded me of this article (which I saw through Majikthise’s site)
where a UK spokesman states that the UK has not released man-eating badgers in Iraq.
My response: how about man-eating cats? Hmm.
Also, I’m surprised no one has explained why cats leave dead and half-dead animals in front of people–this is how a mother teaches its young (starting with a dead animal and working its way up to stunned). It shows that the cat thinks we need help hunting. And the wild version of house-cats, like most felines, are not social animals (except for sex, they stay by themselves).
Hmm, I thought I had posted something–either it’s in moderation or I did something stupid. Here’s a non-link version in case of the latter:
Wow animals–not only this, but elephants can hear messages 12 miles away through their toes; there’s a dog that goes with a woman who has problems fainting (used to faint several times a day) but the dog knows when she is ready to faint and motions for her to sit down (she has not fainted since).
Cats think we’re bad hunters–they teach their young to hunt by bringing them dead, then half-dead, then only stunned animals. The wild version of housecats are not social.
Majikthise linked to an article where a UK spokesman said that the UK had not released man-eating badgers into Iraq–no word about man-eating kitties.
Quicksand — our cat, after sleeping in exactly the same spot on his cat tree every single night of the two years we’ve had him, suddenly started to insist on sleeping on the bed between my wife and me. D-:
Is it possible that your wife is pregnant? Maybe the cat has recognized a change of state and is curious.
(Yes, I’m quite serious. I could easily be wrong, but it’s a reasonable hypothesis.)
Trystero, did you ever read “Spacetime for Springers”?
I find the ending of that story almost too poignant to be borne. Leiber clearly spent a lot of time observing his cats, though.
If you keep the cat out of the room, you’d just be simultaneously dead and not dead, not immortal.
I iz in yur nursin homs, zombifying yur grannys.
“ur soul, I eated it”
Yeah, it’s when they decide you can handle the non-dead mice that’s the problem….
(One of our cats walked up to me one day and dropped a very live mouse in my lap. My reaction convinced him I wasn’t ready for that yet and he went back to the dead-mouse stage.)
Dialog from a long-forgotten novel:
“Cats are really fur-covered snakes. They don’t really curl up in your lap. They coil. And if you listen carefully, you will find that they do not purr. They rattle.”
>>>>The Cat’s Diary
***iced tea spew***
When does the book come out? I’d stand in line to buy it!