Cat knows when death will come calling

[Matthew Shea]

To be honest, I'm not sure what forum to put this in but this one seems like the closest fit.

I ran across this article today about a cat that can accurately predict when a person is going to die. He lives at a nursing home and will curl up with a patient when they typically have less than 4 hours to live. The staff uses this as a sign that they need to call the patient's family. The cat has been right in 25 cases that they've observed. There must be something to this.

Here's the article.

[Erin Pavlina]

A friend sent me that article this morning. Fascinating stuff. I wonder if the cat is seeing those from beyond reaching out to their loved one to help them cross over.

[seeker5]

Here's the original story from the New England Journal of Medicine website. Quite interesting

NEJM -- A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat

[Old Soul]

I totally believe that!!

Our family dog growing up never left our property and was never tied up, he was a german shepard, he was actually my dads dog, and they were quite close , the night my father died, he was in the hospital in the near by town apx 40 min drive from our home, we went to see him the evening he passed away, we saw him arround 9 pm, and he died in the middle of the night, when we got home we eventually retired for the night, got the phone call that he had passed away, our dog Kayla the shepard was found dead on the highway... sometime in the night ....

as i said that dog never left the property....

[Blueskied]

Odd story...
What if the cat is wrong sometimes and the patient doesn't die.
Family and Priest: Why did you call us?
Nurse: Uhm...the cat said...

[Dan.Linehan]

Haha, Matt, you're a farker?

//Shoulda known.

[Matthew Shea]

Farker? Not really. I've heard of the site, but don't visit much, if at all. The link I gave is the web site for one of our local news broadcasts here in Detroit.

[Dan.Linehan]

Oh, Ok.

That article was on there yesterday. (of course.)

[Dan.Linehan]

Mr. Jones, the Cat scan results are in, and I'm afraid it's bad news.....

[elainevdw]

Beat me to posting the article! LOL. I found it through icanhascheezburger.com, ironically... so it's certainly making its rounds.

Honestly, I like having pets around just so that I don't freak out in the dark. This might sound a little neurotic, but I'm a little bit afraid of boogeymen and the like and tend not to walk through dark rooms if I can help it. But, if there's a dog or cat around, I don't even care because I figure they'd notice everything from vicious ghosts to a measly little spider on the wall!

[Peter Filis]

Cats often stare into space.

Their eyes are moving, as though they are visually tracking a moving object.

Cat owners will know exactly what I'm talking about. It can be a little eerie.

Dogs and other animals don't do this.

I always suspected they were seeing something normally invisible to the human eye, possibly spirits.

Regards
Peter Filis

[realignedliving]

Originally Posted by Matthew Shea

The cat has been right in 25 cases that they've observed. There must be something to this.

I heard about this yesterday - I asked some people who know animals very well what was going on, and there's actually a pretty simple explanation. It has nothing to do with the cat seeing spirits or sensing something else out there!

Like humans, animals often like certain smells over others. For example, some humans love the scent of chocolate, while others much rather prefer the smell of vanilla candles. Likewise, some animals - we'll say cats in this example - like the smell of tuna fish, while other cats love the smell of catnip much, much more. I've heard of some cats even loving the scent of bleach over everything!

A human's body starts decaying about 5~10 hours before death, and if you work around old people who are dying long enough - especially in nursing home areas - you'll begin to notice this smell. Most likely, what I would say with 99.999% confidence, is that this cat likes the smell of decaying bodies. He finds the patients that are about to die, and stays with them until they pass away. That explains his 1) amazing accuracy, and 2) timing - why he goes to the people with ~4 hours left. The body is already beginning to decompose, the cat just picks out the right people due to loving the scent. Hey, it's whatever the cat likes!

See? No other worldly spirits! Not a psychic animal! Just one who likes a strange smell.

[CFPurpose]

Funny you mention this. My friend just told me about this last night while watching tv.

[carenkh]

Originally Posted by realignedliving

A human's body starts decaying about 5~10 hours before death, and if you work around old people who are dying long enough - especially in nursing home areas - you'll begin to notice this smell.

I have never heard that bodies decay before death. I know circulation to the extremities is lowered...but that's not decay. My mom worked in a nursing home, so I visited often as a child, and I don't remember a "decaying" smell - it smelled mostly clean, unless one of the incontinent patients had an accident. How can a body decay before it's dead?

[LillyoftheValley]

Bummer. I have a mild cat-phobia.

[Amadeus]

My wife is a nurse in critical care and says that sometimes nurses report seeing apparitions of those who has just passed away walking around minutes after the passing. Nurses and others who work in the hospital see this phenomenon, but blow it off because it happens so frequently. Anyone else here have heard of other's experiences with this?

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by carenkh

I have never heard that bodies decay before death. I know circulation to the extremities is lowered...but that's not decay. How can a body decay before it's dead?

Yep, I googled it and couldn't find anything saying that says that bodys decay before death.

[realignedliving]

That's true that when you begin to die, the blood starts pooling in the organs, but it also starts pooling at the lowest point in the body (which, in most human cases, since the blood is sent to the organs, it'd pool in the organs themselves.) When an organ fails, it starts decaying right there. And since "normal" death is brought on by your body failing on itself (and organ failure), you start decaying a few hours before death actually hits.

[Gordon]

Isn't it always the case that cats (and evil dogs) always go to the person who dislikes them the most.....Yes I don't like dogs.

I wonder if the cat could be trained to visit my sister-in-law?

G

[Old Soul]

My wife is a nurse in critical care and says that sometimes nurses report seeing apparitions of those who has just passed away walking around minutes after the passing.

Funny I always wondered if nurses or doctors know more than they are telling :-) you don't read many reports stating this , or rarely ever hear doctors/ nurses talk about it .... at least I have not

[Amadeus]

I guess "report" is not the right word to use. They discuss it from time to time.