“I will be there”: the cat Oscar has accompanied more than 100 people on their last journey

Oscar the cat is a permanent resident of the Steere House nursing home in the American city of Providence. For fifteen years she has been slowly wandering the corridors of the third floor of the center. The cat is not very friendly and sometimes too hostile according to the nurses.

The only people she comes in contact with are patients living out their last days.

According to the center’s staff, Oscar makes rounds of the wards every day and doesn’t stay anywhere for long. But if she decides to stay, it’s a sure sign that the person will soon be gone.

Usually a cat will jump up on the windowsill and sit there for hours, or curl up into a ball in a dying person’s bed and lie there until the end.

Doctors at the center say she has accompanied more than 100 people on their final journey in this way, and perceives Oscar’s presence on the ward as a sign of impending death – according to staff observations, it happens within a few days.

David Dosa, a geriatrician who worked at Steere House, became interested in the cat’s unique abilities. He observed the animal’s behavior for a long time and even conducted experiments. So, once he put Oscar on the bed with an elderly man who, it seemed to him, might die soon.

The pet did not want to stay on it and continued to try to escape. When it succeeded, it rushed to the end of the corridor to the ward of another patient, who became not two hours later.

In 2007, David Dosa published an article about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine that attracted the attention of scientists from around the world. In it, he described 25 cases in which a cat “predicted” patients’ deaths before his eyes. David also noted the importance of the therapeutic effect of communication with animals in palliative practice.

In 2013, Oscar almost died. The cat had a severe allergic reaction and for several minutes her heart stopped beating.

Fortunately, doctors were able to revive the unique cat and return her to her original place after treatment. She still wanders the corridors of the center and from time to time helps those who leave this world to find peace.