How Nursing Homes with Cats Are Helping Kittens and Residents Alike
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- Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home
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- Antique Painting of "Kittens at Play" by Alfred Arthur Brunel de Neuville
- Three Uses of Robot Cats in Nursing Homes for Seniors
A scene includes a retiree in a walker in front of the home dropping dead on the sidewalk when the cat walks in front of him and screeches. I have read articles about Oscar so I was excited to find out there was a book about him. As I read my interest started waning as I realized it was more about the doctor and Alzheimer's then about Oscar. Making Rounds with Oscar provides a poignant example of the “magic” of animals and how important they can be in our lives. “He’ll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he’s back at the patient’s side. It’s like he’s literally on a vigil.” And although the nursing home keeps five other cats, none of the others have exhibited similar behavior.
When he senses a person is dying, he jumps on their bed and settles down to keep vigil until the undertakers collect the body. Watching my own mother pass away from cancer and seeing how her dog interacted with her I believe that Oscar has that special gift too...the gift to comfort someone in the darkest of times. We all must die alone but with an animal lying by your side, purring or just snuggling I truly believe it brings comfort not only to the person who is passing on but those who are there with them. The author starts off not believing that a cat could be capable of showing this kind of knowledge or empathy and by researching he finds it to be true. This book gives me hope and less fear of death since I have 4 pets.
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Making Rounds with Oscar is tough to read, but should be mandatory for young people and, especially, anyone with parents who are aging. Once you finish reading the 23-chapter book, don’t stop. It is short and offers five excellent suggestions about love, acceptance and letting go. Oscar lived on the third floor of a rest home in Rhode Island, where all 41 dementia patients were. "People were actually taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass. He was there when they couldn't be," he said. There are models that are lifelike and designed with “fur” and features such as a “heartbeat”, but there are also those that are made to look more like a robot.
This was more about letting go with dignity and allowing one to pass on in dignity, as much as one can. Admittedly, the doctor had a hard job, but his bed-side manner could have been a little warmer. However, with that being said, I liked his honest approach to the reality that so many have a hard time embracing until it is ultimately thrust upon them towards the very end. I know the author, which is the only reason I initially chose to read this book.
Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home
The companionship that Oscar provides is appreciated, he said. Dosa said that Oscar has been accurate in 25 cases so far. He sits with patients at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, when they are in their last four hours of life. According to the director of advancement, Dana Carns, Oreo is an example of the love one often finds in a home, and St. Augustine's residents definitely agree. "I figured she can have me. I'm not her owner, but I like her," said Susan Orwen, a nursing home resident. According to the Huffington Post, Oreo wandered into St. Augustine Health Ministries about five years ago, where she befriended the staff as well as live-in residents.
In 2014, the comedy film Just Before I Go features a cat seen curling up next to Greta's dying grandmother. Some have argued that Oscar did not have an ability to predict death, and that this was a case of confirmation bias. As of 2015, it was believed that Oscar accurately predicted 100 deaths. Photography Courtesy Karen Hollish/Pima Animal Care Center.
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In fact, he has even proved medical staff wrong at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island, where he was adopted seven years ago as a kitten. Far from recoiling from Oscar's presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in newspaper death notices and eulogies, said Dr Dosa. We always knew that cats could make a huge impact on human lives, so when we found out about Oreo, an adorable feline who is bringing joy to her new home in a nursing facility, we weren't surprised. Dosa, 37, a geriatrician and professor at Brown University, works on the third floor of the Steere House, which treats patients with severe dementia. It's usually the last stop for people so ill they cannot speak, recognize their spouses and spend their days lost in fragments of memory.
They play with visiting children and prove a welcome distraction for patients and doctors alike. This book did not have enough Meow for me, just like Dewey. Maybe, since I volunteered at a Hospice home for a couple years, I can relate more to this setting.
The dementia patients perhaps listened or otherwise heard of the so-called news of their cat being the Death Cat . Some time later Oscar was found dead in mysterious circumstances. Now less compassion being shown dementia patients as they let go of this life.
Robot pets are artificially intelligent human-made machines made to resemble their living counterparts, which are usually cats and dogs. Unlike stuffed animals, these are programmed to be interactive and in some models, adaptive. After a year, the staff noticed that Oscar would spend his days pacing from room to room. He sniffed and looked at the patients but rarely spent much time with anyone - except when they had just hours to live.
Several years ago, my now late cat went outside to meet his good friend, the kitty next door. That day, he walked up to her in his usual friendly way, but then, suddenly hissed, swiped at her face, and ran back into the house. And second, he had just turned on his best pal for no apparent reason. Two hours later I went outside and discovered that she had crawled underneath a car and died.
The cat’s uncanny ability to comfort those in need seems impossible — but the way Dosa describes it, even Oscar’s supernatural skill seems unmistakably feline. That is, Oscar is occasionally indifferent and cranky. Richards was at her mother’s bedside nonstop as she died. At its heart, Dosa’s search is more about how people cope with death than Oscar’s purported ability to predict it.
I enjoyed the book because as a pet owner I’m firmly convinced that animals can sense our moods and provide comfort and companionship when we need it most. But at the same time, I call the experience of reading the book bittersweet. My family has a history of Alzheimer’s, and those personal experiences brought a special poignancy and touch of melancholy to the story. A scientist, Dr. Dosa was admittedly skeptical of Oscar’s ability to sense death.
My wife had started the book a couple weeks earlier but had to put it down. Her mom died of complications of Alzheimer’s; we had watched the symptoms emerge and urged testing, which confirmed our worst suspicions. Those memories still too close to the surface forced my wife, a nurse, to turn away from traveling Oscar’s road, for now. There is one couple, in particular, whose story winds through most of the book. The husband is totally dedicated, sometimes to the point of overwhelming obsession, to his wife and her spiraling downhill plight.
I don't know what it is about books written about a special cat. In most of the books it's the author that is in the middle of the attention and not the cat and that's dissapointing, but that's just my personal opinion. Here it isn't the author, but the disease called 'dementia'. I'm a big believer of that cats and horses have some kind of sixth sense. I'm certain that cats are with one paw in the real world and with another in the spiritual world or in the underworld. This is a true story, written by a doctor at the nursing home.
He once feared that families would be horrified by the furry grim reaper, especially after Dosa made Oscar famous in a 2007 essay in the New England Journal of Medicine. Instead, he says many caregivers consider Oscar a comforting presence, and some have praised him in newspaper death notices and eulogies. To have cats, as resident pets, I think is a great policy. Oscar, and pals-too bad they were not mentioned more, was amazing and caring.
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