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.

    一旦猫咪奥斯卡来拜访罗得岛Steere House疗养康复中心，工作人员们就要一跃而起开始忙碌了—因为奥斯卡能够在几个小时内预知死亡。

    普罗维登斯布朗大学博士David Dosa在痴呆晚期部工作两年了，其间他见证奥斯卡曾至少25次出现在濒死病人身边。

    他在《新英格兰医学日志》中记载过有关奥斯卡的能力。

    布朗大学社区健康教授Joan Teno博士在巡视病人的时候说：“并非每次都是奥斯卡先到，但是在病人临死前两个小时内它肯定会出现。”

    奥斯卡还小的时候就来到养老院，经常来拜访院里的病人，但是如果它蜷缩起来，医师和工作人员就知道是时候给病人家属打电话了。

    Teno说：“我不认为它能通灵，可能是某种生化反应”。

    很多养老院也饲养猫咪，目的是安慰那些年老孤独的人们，奥斯卡的本领很特别，虽然不是人们最初期待的那种。

    猫科专家、伊利诺斯州学院兽医动物医学主任Thomas Graves说：“这的确是我们该研究的事情”。

    Graves说没有证据表明猫能够预知死亡，但是他也没有说完全不可能。

    他说：“这些东西很难研究。我想大约狗和猫能够感觉到人类感觉不到的东西”。

    Dosa博士记得某一天，奥斯卡来到313号房间的病人床上。

    它的出现让工作人员开始给家属打电话并安排守夜祈祷。

    病人的孙子询问为何有只猫在这里，他的妈妈解释说：“它来帮助祖母升入天堂”。

    半小时后，病人去世了。

    1. rehabilitation：复原

    2. end-stage：晚期的、末期的

    3. dementia：痴呆

    4. curl up：卷起

    5. psychic：精神的，通灵的

    6. biochemical：生物化学的

    7. discount：忽视、认为不可信

    8. vigil：守夜