Even for cat lovers, Oscar the Cat is not a welcomed sight in your bed at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The unsociable cat is known to curl up in bed with only one type of patient: those who have only hours to live.
Doctors at the facility insist that they have tested Oscar over five years and found that he has never been wrong in 50 cases. The cat walks the halls and refuses to curl up with anyone until he finds patient who is dying. He then jumps into their bed and curls up with them. In one case, the staff put him on the bed of a patient who they believed had only hours to live. Oscar refused and jumped off — only to run to another patient who promptly died. The first patient lived for days more.
Of course, given his reputation, they may want to look at whether Oscar is actually toxic or whether patients have a heart attack when Oscar suddenly appears in their bed.
For the full story, click here.
Puns, did I hear puns:
1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.”
2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, “Dam!”
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.
4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, “I’ve lost my electron.” The other says, “Are you sure?” The first replies “Yes, I’m positive.”
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?”, they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
7. A woman delivers a set of identical twins and decides to give them up for adoption.
One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Ahmal.” The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.”
8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to “persuade” the friars to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
This cat is the incarnation of Bast, or Anubis …
Oscar is a psychopomp, a mediator between the empirical physical and spiritual worlds – in shamanic cultures animal psychopomps are more commonly horses, birds, and dogs. Oscar seems to be a lone operator, not working with a shaman. I suspect there are more sentient beings out there with Oscar’s abilities but humans rarely pay attention.
I have a very aloof fat cat who cuddles with no one but me….hmmmm perhaps I should be afraid!
GW3L:
“There was a “House” episode about this. At the end of the episode, House found that it was that the people who were about to die were given extra blankets and thus were warmer. Cats like warm blankets. Mystery solved.”
you are probably right, I use an electric blanket and the cat is always on the bed at night.
This doesn’t surprise me. I have has several aloof cats who have reacted to an illness or extreme stress by snuggling with me.
They obviously sense something, even if it is a lowered threat level from a large potentially predatory animal.
This cat, in a building full of ill and feeble humans probably has developed a sense of watchfulness toward the near dead. At a guess it is a domesticated sense of watching an animal die as a prelude to a meal, that has become altered in an animal that is consistently well fed, but he watchfulness instinct remains.
Let’s face it even humans have been able to smell death on an ailing or aged person. Much of that smell is removed in hospital or nursing home setting, but many of us know it is there because we have experienced it with older relatives who predated nursing homes, and their disinfected smell.
There was a “House” episode about this. At the end of the episode, House found that it was that the people who were about to die were given extra blankets and thus were warmer. Cats like warm blankets. Mystery solved.
As a cat lover I would be comforted to have a cat beside me as I died.
Byron,
Well thank you kind one.
AY:
enjoy.
Who will be the first Turleyite to enjoy the glories of the “sarcmarc”?
http://www.neatorama.com/2010/01/15/sarcasm-punctuation-mark/
Byron,
Thank you, kind sir.
One lives to be of service.
Buddha:
it really does exist, although you don’t need one. You are able to express sarcasm 5×5 without need of punctuation.
Is there a particular site that is better than others? No Buddha not porn, I am sure you have some of the originals man cave dwellings.
Byron,
Holy Binary Batman! The “sarcasm font” I have so desperately needed has finally arrived! lol
AY:
I need one of those sarcasm punctuations available for a 1.99 from some website. I saw it on TV a week or so ago. I thought it was a good idea.
You buy the software and it integrates with your word processing and when you want to use it you type ctrl and another key and viola, a sarcasm punctuation. In frigging credible.
Byron,
I guess I missed the rhetoric. Sorry… put a smiley face at the end so I’ll know you are kidding.
AY:
it was a rhetorical question.
Byron,
I did not know that Dr. Jack died, as of this writing. A movie is set to be released or will be released soon entitled “You Don’t know Jack” staring Al Pacino and Susan Sarandon.
But as of this writing he is still alive and well in Michigan….
How long has Dr. Kevorkian been dead? There may be something to re-incarnation.
They should change the cats name to Charon.
That is the cat O’ Death. The Feline of the Divine of most holy soon to be departed. Giving new meaning to Station 9 3/4.
But I guess this is kinda eerie for an aware but yet soon to be departed soul leaving behind there soles as pointed out in the earlier thread.