Sunday Psychic Cat Blogging

by hilzoy

From the NEJM, the story of Oscar, a cat who lives in the dementia ward of a nursing home, and seems to be able to predict when its residents will die:

"Oscar takes no notice of the woman and leaps up onto the bed. He surveys Mrs. T. She is clearly in the terminal phase of illness, and her breathing is labored. Oscar's examination is interrupted by a nurse, who walks in to ask the daughter whether Mrs. T. is uncomfortable and needs more morphine. The daughter shakes her head, and the nurse retreats. Oscar returns to his work. He sniffs the air, gives Mrs. T. one final look, then jumps off the bed and quickly leaves the room. Not today.

Making his way back up the hallway, Oscar arrives at Room 313. The door is open, and he proceeds inside. Mrs. K. is resting peacefully in her bed, her breathing steady but shallow. She is surrounded by photographs of her grandchildren and one from her wedding day. Despite these keepsakes, she is alone. Oscar jumps onto her bed and again sniffs the air. He pauses to consider the situation, and then turns around twice before curling up beside Mrs. K.

One hour passes. Oscar waits. A nurse walks into the room to check on her patient. She pauses to note Oscar's presence. Concerned, she hurriedly leaves the room and returns to her desk. She grabs Mrs. K.'s chart off the medical-records rack and begins to make phone calls.

Within a half hour the family starts to arrive. Chairs are brought into the room, where the relatives begin their vigil. The priest is called to deliver last rites. And still, Oscar has not budged, instead purring and gently nuzzling Mrs. K. A young grandson asks his mother, "What is the cat doing here?" The mother, fighting back tears, tells him, "He is here to help Grandma get to heaven." Thirty minutes later, Mrs. K. takes her last earthly breath. With this, Oscar sits up, looks around, then departs the room so quietly that the grieving family barely notices.

On his way back to the charting area, Oscar passes a plaque mounted on the wall. On it is engraved a commendation from a local hospice agency: "For his compassionate hospice care, this plaque is awarded to Oscar the Cat." Oscar takes a quick drink of water and returns to his desk to curl up for a long rest. His day's work is done. There will be no more deaths today, not in Room 310 or in any other room for that matter. After all, no one dies on the third floor unless Oscar pays a visit and stays awhile.

Note: Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscar the Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deaths of more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing staff members to adequately notify families."

In a discussion of this at the Washington Post, Dr. David M. Dosa, the author, says that the 25 deaths at which Oscar has been present are all the deaths in that facility, and that he doesn't generally curl up next to people who are not about to die. He thinks that there's something Oscar smells, or somehow detects, that we can't. Some people asked whether Oscar might not be killing the patients, for instance by scaring them, since that would also explain the correlation; the author notes that these are patients with end-stage dementia who are pretty unlikely to be scared by much of anything. My favorite question:

"Washington, D.C.: Has anyone considered the possibility that the reason this cat is always there is because it's stealing the patients' souls?

Dr. David M. Dosa: Harkens back to the ancient Egyptians who I believe used to mention this (or so I am told). I really doubt it."

Me too.

Someone else quoted Jay Leno: "Anyway -- today, the cat curled up next to the John McCain campaign."

Heh. Indeed.

Comments

[JakeB]

Well, I figured it was because he wanted to eat the patients' brains, and keeps hoping noone will notice him going into the patients' rooms. It was a real pleasure to be able to forward the link to my family under the subject line 'Oscar the Death Cat'.

[frolix22]

I would shoo the furball away if it came anywhere near me.

[freelunch]

It's a hospice ward. The question is not if they will die, but when. If any of these people were in any frame of mind to recognize this, they may be pleased to welcome Oscar to the end of their terminal illness.

[Jay Jerome]

Un-Oh -- I better head over to PetSmart and pick up a new Sheepskin Cat Bed, and some gourmet treats...

[Bernard Yomtov]

Hasn't there been research in the past few years suggesting that dogs' ability to pick up cues from humans is even greater than previously thought?

Could the same be true for cats?

[John Spragge]

We've actually known about animals' ability to pick up cues, an ability known as the Clever Hans effect for just about a century now.

[noen]

True, it could something along the lines of "Clever Hans". A very clever horse indeed. I think the Doc is onto something when he suggests Oscar may be smelling something we can't. Cats can hear the A/C current humming in your electrical outlets so I suppose they could also smell the hint of decay on a dying body. It would make sense to me that a predator would evolve that ability. Predators usually take the sick and dying as they are the easiest to catch.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

I've read of dogs smelling an eplipetic seizure about to take place (though I'm not sure how you would be certain it was smell and not for example hearing that triggered it).

[Daniel Goldberg]

There's a thread on this at PrawfsBlawg. Dogs can smell certain kinds of cancers -- this has been rumored for some time, and studies have consistently affirmed it within the past few years.

[rilkefan]

"dogs' ability to pick up cues from humans is even greater than previously thought?

Could the same be true for cats?"

I suspect studies would show that cats' ability to read as well as their disinterest in reading human cues is even greater than previously thought.

[Daniel Goldberg]

Sebastian,

It's smell because epileptic seizures occur because of certain electrochemical impulses in the brain. These currents can be sensed by smell if you happen to have the incredibly olfactory sensors that dogs have. This isn't really all that unusual -- sharks hunt prey using a similar mechanism. It's why they tell you not to splash around and panic if you see sharks -- they can sense the electrochemical impulses given off if you panic, and predators like distressed prey.

[Heraldblog]

I don't know. I'm skeptical. Why is the cat spending time with somebody about to die? What is reinforcing this behavior? How does the doctor control for observer bias? Does the cat even curl up with someone who isn't at death's door? How much time typically passes between the cat first lying down and time of death? These questions need to be addressed before we go all Leonard Nimoy on a WaPo story.

[rilkefan]

"These currents can be sensed by smell"

That can't be right. Fish can sense electric potentials via the lines down their sides iirc, but that's not chemical in nature.

[Daniel Goldberg]

Thanks, rilkefan, I stand corrected. Regardless of whether the sense involved is olfactory or electrosensory, dogs' ability to sense such phenomena are generally accepted, IMO.

[Joe Thomas]

Taking this as an open thread. . .
Does anyone have a particularly effective trick for keeping track of the comment thread on a post? E-mail notification or something? I assume there must be one, and that people aren't actually remembering to go back and check the comments every twenty minutes to keep up with the arguments.
I have to admit that I only occasionally feel like I have anything to contribute, but I feel somehow intellectually dishonest jumping in with a comment and then disappearing from the thread because it's just too damn inconvenient to try to keep up with it manually.

[rilkefan]

Joe Thomas: "disappearing from the thread"

As far as I know there is no community blame attached to not sticking around to argue a point.

I rely on skimming and reskimming to keep up to the extent I do. I think it's good form to include the (bolded) name of the commenter to whom I'm replying if there are intervening comments, which makes said skimming much simpler. I do so when I'm not lazy or pressed for time.

[liberal japonicus]

Unfortunately, the comment threads themselves, don't have an RSS feed, so the best way to keep up is to look at the recent comments bar on the right side. This can be a problem if another thread is boiling over, but generally, one can see that at least one comment has been made and you can check to see what you've missed. I don't know what time zone you are in, but the main participation times seem to be around the lunch hour in the states, if I have the time offset calculated correctly.

[Jesurgislac]

After 25 tries, you'd think Oscar might have figured out that he won't be allowed to eat the prey he finds dying...

[Dianne]

I don't think Oscar is looking for dinner. Cats are predators, not scavengers. And, at least great cats in the wild, they don't necessarily wait for their prey to be dead before chomping in, just for it to be incapacitated. If Oscar wanted a little long pig, one would expect him to dig in as soon as he figured out that the prey wasn't going anywhere. Maybe it's confirmation bias, maybe the cat is detecting something subtlely different about these patients, heck, maybe the Egyptian's were right about the cats and souls thing...

[KCinDC]

I'm no expert on ancient Egypt, but why would the Egyptians revere cats and keep them around if they thought they were stealing souls? I think Dr. Dosa is confused.

[Tad]

Can you imagine that phone call. "Sir, we have reason to believe that your mother is about to pass on. We hope you can come by to observe her last rights. Yes I'm afraid the Cat is never wrong in these cases."

Perhaps sad, perhaps ridiculous

[lightning]

Looks like we have another diagnostic use for the cat scan.

(somebody had to say it ...)

[The Fool]

Lucifer Sam, Siam cat!

That cat's something I can't explain.

[Elliott]

Oh for crying out loud! Why can you folks ascribe ill motives to the cat but benign ones to dogs? As someone who has actually had cats in her life, I can tell you that in over 50 years of cat companionship, I have witnessed many acts of compassion on the part of cats--including curling up with the ill, or the dying, staying with them, and even mourning, or so it looked, after their passing. I have talked to several people over the years with similar stories, including one woman I know whose cat will detect illness in her children before the woman does (by lying close to them on the bed or chair in a protective manner). Sense of smell? Maybe. I think there might be something in the hearing line--there's some evidence of cats vocalizing in a frequency we can't hear, but other cats can, maybe they hear changes in heart rate or such.

The Egyptians worshipped cats, they did not think they stole souls. Dr. Dosa may need a little remedial history.

[aballoflight]

RIP Oscar...
Oscar, the nursing home cat who could seemingly sense the impending death of patients, was found dead early yesterday...
Officials at the facility would not reveal the cause of death, but did acknowledge rumors that the cat was becoming increasingly unpopular among the patients. One knowledgeable source - who agreed to speak with us on the condition of anonymity - confirmed increasing animosity toward the animal, and that a dented bedpan was found near the body.