Does Your Cat Want You Dead?

<p>Also known as the Angel of Death, Oscar is a singularly unfriendly nursing home cat who somehow developed the habit of only cuddling up with the nearly departed. At this signal from the Grim Reaper of Cats, the staff alerted family, enabling them to say their goodbyes. Oscar's predictions have set the standard for medical practitioners, who still can't hope to match him. How does he do it? And, more intriguingly, why? What does Oscar want, and by extension, what do cats want?</p> <p>Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? <a href='https://thisanimallife.com/'>Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com </a>and <a href='https://thisanimallife.com/?page_id=392'>click on Show Notes</a>.</p> <p>References:</p> <p>Bradbury, Ray.  “The Veldt,” <a href='https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24830.The_Illustrated_Man?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=8GiokUdanj&rank=1'>The Illustrated Man</a>, Doubleday, 1951.</p> <p><a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/8070463@N03/4846130783'>Cat image</a> (left) by Tambako the Jaguar on Flikr Creative Commons, 2010.</p> <p>De Waal, Frans. <a href='https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30231743-are-we-smart-enough-to-know-how-smart-animals-are?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=dOvM6VGj8N&rank=1'>Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?</a> WW Norton, 2016.</p> <p>DiChario, Nick. "<a href='https://thisanimallife.com/?page_id=816'>I am Mr. Baxter</a>," This Animal Life, 2021.</p> <p>Dohen, Kathleen. “<a href='https://pets.webmd.com/cats/news/20070725/cats-sixth-sense-predicting-death#1'>Cat’s ‘Sixth Sense’ Predicting Death</a>.” Fetch by WebMD, July 25, 2007.</p> <p>Dosa, David, interviewed by Carol Kaufmann. “<a href='https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-06-2010/an_angel_with_whiskers.html'>An Angel With Whiskers</a>,” AARP Bulletin, July 10, 2010.</p> <p>Dosa, David, interviewed by Richard Schlesinger. “<a href='https://youtu.be/9PxI3efVVeI'>Eye to Eye: Oscar The Cat</a>,” CBS News. July 27, 2007.</p> <p>David Dosa, <a href='https://www.goodreads.com/