Comments | aethyrflux: ...all aboard The Feline Psychopomp Express!

aethyrflux

...all aboard The Feline Psychopomp Express!

Jul 27, 2007 01:27

Although the presence of animals is generally discouraged in sterile non-veterinary-oriented health care environments, they are sometimes effectively employed for their benefits to the emotional health of patients & their families. Perhaps similar to the practices of Saint Francis, or any number of folk traditions from around the world, and ( Read more... )

macro, unconscious, psychopomp, psychic, lolcat, escape, compassion, consious, oscar, providence, death, cat, kitteh, dementia

Comments 16

postconditional July 27 2007, 02:42:57 UTC

It's Oscar the Death Cat!

postconditional July 27 2007, 02:46:55 UTC

Oh... wait... you know about it already. Nevermind... :)

aethyrflux July 27 2007, 04:58:46 UTC

subsequent to the original post, i have added some details to clarify the background of the entry

knighthorse July 27 2007, 03:22:01 UTC

Meet Joe Tabby

aethyrflux July 27 2007, 05:01:10 UTC

i haven't seen Death Takes a Holiday, or either of the remakes...

agua_miel July 27 2007, 03:53:38 UTC

Oscar!

I like the last picture, with the little old lady flattened against the wall, presumably petrified.

aethyrflux July 27 2007, 05:04:38 UTC

Well, Oscar does live in the Dementia unit, so she probably is petrified by something!
This article was published by a local doctor in Providence who knows Oscar personally:

"A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat," by David M. Dosa, M.D., M.P.H. (Dr. Dosa is a geriatrician at Rhode Island Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University - both also in Providence.)

nfnitperplexity July 27 2007, 06:32:11 UTC

Yeah my first thought was, "Cat *predicts* death? Or cat *causes* death...by eating souls!?"

aethyrflux July 27 2007, 17:53:06 UTC

not necessarily eating them... perhaps just guiding them through their final rites of passage?
OTOH, just as a Birthday can be referred to as one's Lesser Feast, Death is the Greater Feast!

and for those who like to attribute supernatural powers to kittehs...
The Urban Legends Reference Pages @ snopes.com clears up a related controversy:
Can Cats Suck The Breath From Babies?

sheilagh July 27 2007, 14:37:12 UTC

Grim Rea-Purr is just precious!!!

aethyrflux July 27 2007, 17:05:33 UTC

And as The Daily Mail reported (& to give credit where credit is due, i swiped the pun from them, too ='т'= ) Oscar can be rather grim:

"As far as those who work there are aware, there is only one death at which Oscar has not been present - and that wasn't because he didn't notice it, but because relatives of the patient asked for him to be removed from the room.

Standing outside, Oscar began such a noisy commotion of frenzied caterwauling, miaowing and scratching at the door that he had to be removed from the unit. Clearly, he wanted to be in the room and was not happy about being told he had to stay away.

His insistence was all the more peculiar because although Oscar purrs contentedly as he nestles close to those who have just hours to live, he normally prefers to stay aloof from human company.

As Dosa puts it, 'Oscar is not usually particularly friendly. He actually doesn't like spending time with either patients or staff. Sure, you can usually bribe him with some food if you want to, but that's about it.'"