Oscar the cat seems like an ordinary cat at first glance, but this special feline has an amazing talent.
He lives in the Steere House nursing home, and his caretakers say he doesn’t much care for people. He generally avoids others and has a habit of disappearing for long stretches of time. The thing that makes this cat remarkable is that Oscar always comes back and stays with patients who are dying.
Oscar walks around the ward, which houses 40 patients, and he always and only stays with people when they are at the very end. When someone is passing Oscar won’t leave their room, sometime he will sit on the windowsill for hours at a time.
Dr. David Dosa wrote a book about the cat called “Making Rounds With Oscar.” He says that not only does Oscar comfort the dying, but he helps alleviate the stress of the caregivers who have to deal with death on a daily basis.
