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.