Oscar The Death Cat: I Haz Sniffed Many Deaths

For the last five years, Oscar the cat has been sniffing out death. Literally. The cat lives at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation in Providence, Rhode Island, a facility that cares for people with severe dementia. Back in 2007, geriatrician and Brown University professor David Dosa wrote a perspective in The New England Journal of Medicine claiming that Oscar is the cuddlier, feline equivalent of the Grim Reaper. According to Dosa, his mere presence at the bedside of severely ill patients is viewed by doctors and nurses alike as an almost absolute indicator of impending death. Now Oscar is back in the news, as Dosa has just published a book expanding on the story. The Telegraph reports: