Dr Mario Kart

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/25/dea....ap/index.html

A few hours before patients die, this little guy curls up with you, with insane accuracy.

Mind Boggling

Baraka_Guru

This immediately reminded me of dogs who can sense a seizure before it happens. Much of that has to do with their sense of smell, I believe. Maybe cats have something that allows them to sense the "conditions" of a impending death. Animals have such keen senses that we humans can only shake our heads at. They also don't have the same number of distractions that we do.

Interesting article anyway; even if it really is the cat lying with the dying patient just because they often have a heated blanket.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

abaya

That is... wow. Both very cool, and kinda creepy. As long as the patients aren't too aware of the cat's presence, I see it as a good thing. But if they are aware of him, and they know that he's the "grim reaper," well that would be kind of sad/freaky.

Animals can be so cool with their "sense" of things. Wish we could understand the mechanisms a little better...

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for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Dr Mario Kart

Anyone ever see Bubba Ho-tep? maybe he needs to be STOPPED

SecretMethod70

oh no! Keep it away from their assholes!

/in response to Dr Mario Kart

Anyway, pretty interesting.

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Dr Mario Kart

I feel terrible having made this

ShaniFaye

That is so wrong....but I love it

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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

Lady Sage

Pretty kitty... where can I get me one of those?

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abaya

Dr Mario... it had to be done. If not by you, then by some other sick-minded weirdo. Nice one!!!

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And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Amnesia620

Uh uh. Everytime this cat would be coming near me, I'd cry. LOL! I'd worry everytime this cat came near one of my friends or family.

That is HILARIOUS!!!

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analog

Dr Mario Kart:

This is the first and only time I've ever laughed at one of those "cat pics with funky words under them" pictures... and I laughed long and hard. Congratulations.

I would also make the following observation: People, even with full-blown dementia/Alzheimer's/neurological disorders, are more likely to succumb to their fate if they feel relaxed, at peace. If the cat is curling up with the patient, even though they *say* the patient likely doesn't know the cat is there, the patient may still feel the cat on them, feel the warmth or *something*. If this is the case, it would certainly support the idea that when the cat curls up, it gives the patient some level of comfort, some feeling of companionship, that causes them to relax a bit and finally give in to their illness. Even if the person is completely unresponsive to external stimuli like talking or touching, doesn't necessarily mean they can't hear or feel what's going on. We don't know that for certain.

So really... the cat may almost be giving people the comfort to finally die, rather than predicting when it actually happens.

snowy

I laugh at a lot of them...but this one is definitely one I'll actually remember.

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Plan9

HAHAHAH!

Now I know why my cat "checks" on me at night.

Psychic bastard.

...

Omigod, I GOT it. Hahaha, a NEW LINE OF US AIR FORCE SMART MUNITIONS!

Simply insert Oscar-like cats into bomb capsules and drop them on "terrorists"...

No explosion, no napalm, no radiation... just "terrorists" that get cuddled with and die the next day.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

pornclerk

OMFG I can't stop laughing at this! Is that bad?

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Bill O'Rights

So....do the patients know about this?

Mary Jane Rottencrotch: "Awwww...look Grandma, the furry little Angel of Death just curled up beside you. Idn't dat cute?"
Grandma: "AHHHHHHH!! Get it off me!! Get it off me!!

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ShaniFaye

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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

Plan9

Creepy!

"Meow! Yur gunna fawkin' DIE! Meow!"

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

RenaissanceII

While not necessisarily death related, I had a cat that on one of my more down emotional days cut out its normal antics and spent a little additional time with me.

The cat, in its way. was offering support to me....

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I Wish You Well.

rockzilla

After reading that article, I get really suspicious when my cats curl up with me when I go to bed. I'm pretty sure that the only reason that they haven't killed me yet is because they haven't figured out how to feed themselves.

Xazy

I was yesterday visiting a friend in ICU, at the hospital, and they have very unique visiting hours (30 minutes every 2 hours). Needless to say this story came on tv while we were waiting and there was about 8-9 different families there, and it started a whole conversation about it. Was very interesting to see the split but most people there were ready to kill the cat, and said it was not really a good thing.

warrrreagl

Isn't there an old superstition about cats stealing your breath while you sleep?

Ours have a different talent. They can magically sense whenever I'm in the biggest fattest hurry of my life and they take turns lining up in front of me and walking like little kitty grandmas. Ask Grancey how many times a week she'll suddenly hear me calling out from somewhere in the house, "Get out of the way, get out of the way, get the fuck out of the way!"

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QuasiMondo

I don't know why they haven't arrested this cat for murder. He's a four-legged furry Angel of Death!

Line up the dots, man! Cat curls up next to patient, patient dies? It's no coincidence, man. That cat is evil I tell you.

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Cameron originally envisioned the Terminator as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. As a result, his first choice for the part was Lance Henriksen. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.

-From the Collector's Edition DVD of The Terminator

Baraka_Guru

QuasiMondo, they don't try animals...they simply put them to death.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Plan9

Baraka,

Perry Mason called. He wants his one-liners back.

(j/k)

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

guthmund

Oh, that's awesome, Dr.MK, awesome.

I'd be using it to scare the crap out of the bad residents.

"Oh, the angel of death is curled up on bed, Mr. Johnson. I guess next time you'll eat your damn green beans, huh?"

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Jetée

Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home - Telegraph
by Tom Leonard

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Grancey

Great. For the past week Sophia, my fave feline, has insisted on sleeping somewhere on my body during the night. What could this possibly mean?? Don't wanna know.

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Martian

I can haz confurmashun bias?

...

I read about this yesterday -- it popped up as a CBC story. Nifty little piece I suppose. Maybe the cat is psychic. Or, y'know, maybe not.

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- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Baraka_Guru

Cats are dumb.

They're reading into this too much.

First of all, it's a nursing home. So that alone makes it a bit easier than most places to predict that someone is going to die within hours or days.

Second, it's entirely possible that the people who were near death were treating the cat with extra kindness, knowing themselves that they weren't long for this world.

...or, perhaps, the cat was able to get more table scraps from these patients because, you know, maybe they lost their own appetites while in the throes of death.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Sue

I have been in a nursing home where there was a 29 year old patient. Did that mean he was going to die there as well? (he didn't)

If I were on my deathbed, I wouldn't make any effort to treat an animal with extra kindness if it happened to be sitting on it with me. I just wouldn't care that it was there. I'd probably be too tired to move any single extremity.

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Jetée

Compared to what? Us? I'm not sure where I have this regard (maybe my 25+ year subscribtion to Nat'l Geo, or something else altogether perhaps) but among the animal kingdom, cats, ranging from regular housecats to the big predator cats, are near the top of the intelligience charts, even surpassing simians and some primates.
Also, this could be a good starter point to dispel such a broad claim (and hasty): HowStuffWorks "Domestic Cats"

I also think that some of us are trying too hard to overthink this study (well, featured story really) and come up with scenarios that seem all too unlikely, just to ease our thought process and say to ourselves, "well, if this, this and this play out, then this story amounts to little more than hogwash".

I don't see how feigning propped 'what-if' contemplations like the ones above helps any more than responding by saying where is the scientific basis for such a ridiculous claim as a feline harbinger of death? Neither is any more productive in ascertaining the root of the story and happenstances in which this cat has alleged fortold imminent death.

Yes, at the moment, there is no scientific evidence of a certain receptor that allows a cat to hone in on the waking dead, but that may be more as a result of us never looking close enough to care. Or maybe this is a 1 in 500,000 occurrence that this particular has been embued with heightened recptors to the lingering signs of terminal, failing health in humans. This is an ongoing eerie circumstance, and with more instances in which this cat is able to certainly provide further correct cases of declining mortality, the more intriguing (and supposedly stronger) it actually becomes.

I just take the word of the reporters and with what the hospital staff have witnessed thus far, and make my inferences from there. It's not altogether unlikely that this one cat has better senses than you or I, but to detect death? I may like to know more him in the future, even if it is found out that all cats have this innate ability, yet only this one cat was able to properly make use of it (if by only freaking out the entire hospital staff at first).

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Baraka_Guru

Damn, sorry. I don't have that sarcasm mark. That SarcMark thing, or whatever.

I have two cats. Combined, they run the household.

Regardless, I think a large part of this is coincidental. Though I will give animals such as cats and dogs a lot of credit for having heightened senses that we could only dream of. Maybe that has something to do with it. Can't dogs sniff cancer and sense seizures?

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Daniel_

As I said on the other thread...

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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