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Oscar the Cat Predicts Patients' Deaths
If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.
Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.
  Oscar, a hospice cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I., walks past an activity room at the facility Monday, July 23, 2007. Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. (AP Photo/Stew Milne) (Stew Milne - AP) 
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Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."
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Science writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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New England Journal of Medicine: http:/
