I have a tendency, that the interesting personal photos of people go on facebook, and the lesser ones of social importance (i.e. landscapes no-one will care about) wind up on here, sozzicles.
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Oscar was adopted as a kitten from an animal shelter and grew up in the third-floor end-stage dementia unit at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The 41-bed unit treats people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses, most of whom are in the end stage of life and are generally unaware of their surroundings. Oscar was one of six cats adopted by Steere House, which bills itself as a “pet friendly” facility.
After about six months, the staff noticed that Oscar, just like the doctors and nurses, would make his own rounds. Oscar would sniff and observe patients, then curl up to sleep with certain ones. The patients he would sleep with often died within several hours of his arrival. One of the first cases involved a patient who had a blood clot in her leg that was ice cold at the time. Oscar wrapped his body around her leg and stayed until the woman died.In another instance, the doctor had made a determination of impending death based on the patient’s condition, while Oscar simply walked away, causing the doctor to believe that Oscar’s streak (12 at the time) had ended. However, it would be later discovered that the doctor’s prognosis was simply 10 hours too early: Oscar later visited the patient, who died two hours later.
Oscar’s accuracy led the staff to institute a new and unusual protocol: once he is discovered sleeping with a patient, staff will call family members to notify them of the patient’s (expected) impending death.
Most of the time the patient’s family has no issue with Oscar being present at the time of death. On those occasions when he is removed from the room at the family’s request, he is known to pace back and forth in front of the door and meow in protest. When present, Oscar will stay by the patient until they die, then after death will quietly leave the room.
i find this very interesting as this behavior seems common in many cats that reside in mental and nursing homes. Often sharing the bed of the soon to be deceased. In the ancient world cats were revered by many cultures, most famously Ancient Egypt, as guardians of the underworld, keepers of the gate of death, and sometimes even harbingers of death itself. This makes me wonder whether this behavior was observed during ancient times as well and perhaps prompted this belief and many practices surrounding it.
I think it could be any animal in general because my aunts dog was pacing the floor until my aunts mom got home from the hospital, and when she did he laid with her for a couple hours and then he went into his cage and died, then a couple days later she died.
EXCUSE ME IS NO-ONE FINDING THIS EXTREMELY FUCKING CREEPY THIS IS SATAN INCARNATE HOW SCARY IS THAT YOU’RE ALL BRAINFUCKED WHEN THE DEATH KITTEN COMES AND THATS IT YOU KNOW TIME’S UP
(Source: pillory, via vickythevampydemon)
“Airports see more sincere kisses than wedding halls. The walls of hospitals have heard more prayers than the walls of churches.” — (via grizzlytales)
(Source: another-troubled-soul, via thehoobs)
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to be honest i find it hard to believe that theres someone out there that would be able to spend the rest of their life with me
(Source: meekmillion, via frankierosayshomophobiaisgay)