La Voz de Galicia – November 2, 2025 →
The cat’s name was Oscar, and he “worked” at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island (USA). He became famous around 2007, when the center’s geriatrician, Dr. David Dosa, published an article in a medical journal describing the cat’s “uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die”. A few years later, in 2010, Dr. Dosa released the book Making Rounds with Oscar, which made it onto The New York Times bestseller list. A book in which he talks about his patients with dementia, their caregivers, end-of-life experiences, and his experiences with the cat at the residence.
Over his lifetime, Oscar predicted around one hundred deaths at Steere House, to the point that when the cat curled up on a patient’s bed, the staff had a protocol to call the family so they could say goodbye. Although the medical community still doesn’t fully understand why Oscar had this unusual ability, the reality is that from the year he arrived at the residence in 2005 until his death in 2022, Oscar became a kind of icon for discussing the role of animals in palliative care and companionship in the final hours of life.
For those of us who grew up cleaning graves for All Souls’ Day, today is one of those days when we remember those who left us too soon or those who, due to life’s circumstances, died alone… And I think of Oscar, the cat, and his way of keeping company, and I also think that if I end up in a nursing home when I’m old, I hope it’s one that welcomes companion animals…
