Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat (Hardcover)

Significantly expanding on his 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr David Dosa, assistant professor at Brown University and a practicing geriatrician, details the life story and somewhat morbidly fascinating skill of Oscar, a therapy cat who lives in a nursing home in Rhode Island.

For the past five years, Oscar has shown a seemingly uncanny ability to predict the imminent death of terminally ill patients, long suffering the end stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease or other neurological illnesses. In making his rounds of the ward that is his home, Oscar, quite the standoffish cat as a rule, would make a point of curling up for a nap on the bed of one or another patient, almost all of whom would die soon after. The book tells the stories of many of the families who got to know Oscar and his unique skill (or gift?).

In telling Oscar’s particular story, the author succeeds in reaching beyond the sensational as well, taking time to discuss the realities of terminal neurological illnesses and the necessity and benefits of end-of-life care. Not quite the lightest reading by any stretch of the imagination, but a worthwhile read nonetheless.