by Louise Frank

Created on: November 26, 2010   Last Updated: November 27, 2010

A cat called Oscar appears to be able to predict when people are about to die in the New England nursing home where he lives. Oscar, a not normally a particularly sociable cat, curls up on the beds of patients who do not have long to live.  In this way he has predicted the deaths of around 50 people.

Is Oscar psychic or is there a logical explanation for his actions?

Some say it's just a fluke and with a nursing home full of elderly ill people, chances are that he will pick a patient who is about to die. Others are convinced he's psychic and cite the following incident as proof.

Staff were convinced that one resident, a cat lover, was about to die. They put Oscar onto her bed. However, Oscar had other ideas. He immediately jumped down and installed himself on the bed of another patient. Later that night, the ill resident rallied and by morning was feeling much better, while the the second patient died unexpectedly.

Then there was Howie the Persian cat who  managed to cross 1,000 miles of Australian desert to find her owner. Was she psychic or was it, as many claimed, just the homing instinct coming into play.

Many cats seem to know when their owners are about to return home - even if it is at an unexpected time. It's a phenomenon which has been investigated by British scientist Dr Rupert Sheldrake. Experiments showed that even if the pet was isolated in a closed room, or an owner returned at an unusual time by a different route or by a different means of transport, the animal seemed to know.

He also saw many cats who knew when their owners were telephoning home. If they knew it was their owner, they would jump up and go to the phone, but if it was someone else, they ignored it. Similarly, there are reports of cats becoming extremely distressed if their owner has had an accident, even if that accident occurred a long way away.

During the Second World War many cats living in London would become alarmed just before an air raid. They often took refuge in air raid shelters before any of the humans around them knew bombers were on their way.

Then there is the belief that cats can predict the weather. They start pacing the room before a thunderstorm, or groom excessively before rain, and they start to claw the carpet before high winds.

There may well be a scientific explanation for these incidents. Cats are super-sensitive and can perhaps detect changes in air pressure to predict the weather or can detect a change in air waves when heavy airplanes are approaching. Others say animals, without their preconceptions about science and technology, are tuned into the psychic wavelength. They are open to telepathy and this is developed when they become close to their owners.

Whatever the explanation, it seems our pets are far from the 'dumb' creatures they have been depicted.

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