When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation(1) Center in Rhode Island, the staff jump into action -- Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die. 

    In his two years living in Steere's end-stage(2) dementia(3) unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence.

    He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    "It's not that the cat is consistently there first," Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University, who sees patients in the unit. 

    "But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours."

    Raised at the nursing home since he was a kitten, Oscar often checks in on residents, but when he curls up(4) for a visit, physicians and nursing home staff know it's time to call the family.

    "I don't think this is a psychic(5) cat," said Teno. "I think there's probably a biochemical(6) explanation," she said in a telephone interview.

    While pets are often used to bring comfort to the elderly in nursing home settings, Oscar's talent is special, though not unexpected.

    "That is such a cat thing to do," said Thomas Graves, a feline expert and chief of small animal medicine at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

    Graves said there is no evidence to suggest cats can sense death, but he doesn't discount(7) it for a minute.

    "Those things are hard to study. I think probably dogs and cats can sense things we can't," he said.

    On a particular day detailed by Dr. Dosa, Oscar settled onto the bed of a patient in room 313.

    His presence sent staff off to make calls and set up vigil(8).

    When a grandson asked why the cat was there, his mother explained: "He is here to help Grandma get to heaven," according to Dosa\'s account.

    She died a half an hour later.

    一旦貓咪奧斯卡來拜訪羅得島Steere House療養(yǎng)康復(fù)中心，工作人員們就要一躍而起開始忙碌了—因為奧斯卡能夠在幾個小時內(nèi)預(yù)知死亡。

    普羅維登斯布朗大學博士David Dosa在癡呆晚期部工作兩年了，其間他見證奧斯卡曾至少25次出現(xiàn)在瀕死病人身邊。

    他在《新英格蘭醫(yī)學日志》中記載過有關(guān)奧斯卡的能力。

    布朗大學社區(qū)健康教授Joan Teno博士在巡視病人的時候說：“并非每次都是奧斯卡先到，但是在病人臨死前兩個小時內(nèi)它肯定會出現(xiàn)。”

    奧斯卡還小的時候就來到養(yǎng)老院，經(jīng)常來拜訪院里的病人，但是如果它蜷縮起來，醫(yī)師和工作人員就知道是時候給病人家屬打電話了。

    Teno說：“我不認為它能通靈，可能是某種生化反應(yīng)”。

    很多養(yǎng)老院也飼養(yǎng)貓咪，目的是安慰那些年老孤獨的人們，奧斯卡的本領(lǐng)很特別，雖然不是人們最初期待的那種。

    貓科專家、伊利諾斯州學院獸醫(yī)動物醫(yī)學主任Thomas Graves說：“這的確是我們該研究的事情”。

    Graves說沒有證據(jù)表明貓能夠預(yù)知死亡，但是他也沒有說完全不可能。

    他說：“這些東西很難研究。我想大約狗和貓能夠感覺到人類感覺不到的東西”。

    Dosa博士記得某一天，奧斯卡來到313號房間的病人床上。

    它的出現(xiàn)讓工作人員開始給家屬打電話并安排守夜祈禱。

    病人的孫子詢問為何有只貓在這里，他的媽媽解釋說：“它來幫助祖母升入天堂”。

    半小時后，病人去世了。

    1. rehabilitation：復(fù)原

    2. end-stage：晚期的、末期的

    3. dementia：癡呆

    4. curl up：卷起

    5. psychic：精神的，通靈的

    6. biochemical：生物化學的

    7. discount：忽視、認為不可信

    8. vigil：守夜