At the Steer House Nursing Home in Providence, Rhode Island, a cat named Oscar provides a unique service to the residents of the dementia unit. He makes regular rounds, hopping onto patients’ beds, purring and snuggling up to people before leaving to do the same elsewhere. Sometimes, though, Oscar curls up on a patient’s bed and goes to sleep. When this happens, the nursing staff spring into action, because they have learnt that Oscar has an innate sense for recognizing when a patient is near death.
Rather than finding Oscar’s presence morbid, they consider him a blessing as his presence brings comfort to the patient and alerts staff to send for the family. Oscar reminds them and us of the words of Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk throught the Valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.’