{"id":1068,"date":"2021-10-28T06:40:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T06:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2021-10-28T06:42:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T06:42:46","slug":"dont-fear-the-reaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=1068","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t fear the reaper&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Cats have a long history of being associated with the afterlife and the supernatural. I recently watched a film called The Manor (recommended, if you&#8217;re a horror fan) and part of the storyline included a cat called Ozzie residing in the nursing home. Ozzie, it was claimed, knew who was going to be the next person to pass away. There&#8217;s a scene in the film where an elderly lady becomes hysterical because Ozzie starts to follow her round and sit with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This  brought to mind a cat I&#8217;d read about who exists in real life. His name is Oscar, and rather than being a distressing presence to people in the nursing home where he lives, he&#8217;s a reassurance. Oscar, it&#8217;s reported, sits with people as they pass away and keeps them company in their last moments. He seems to know who needs him, and because of this he&#8217;s become the subject of a book written by a doctor who has seen him in action. If you want to read about Oscar, you can read more about him by following the link below or buying the book &#8220;Making the rounds with Oscar&#8221; by Dr David Dosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crossroadshospice.com\/hospice-palliative-care-blog\/2016\/april\/11\/meet-oscar-the-cat-that-predicts-death-and-provides-comfort\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http:\/\/www.crossroadshospice.com\/hospice-palliative-care-blog\/2016\/april\/11\/meet-oscar-the-cat-that-predicts-death-and-provides-comfort\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Coincidentally, Screenrant wrote a list of the top ten smartest characters in The Manor and placed Ozzie the cat at number 1. <a href=\"http:\/\/screenrant.com\/amazon-prime-the-manor-smartest-characters\/\">http:\/\/screenrant.com\/amazon-prime-the-manor-smartest-characters\/ <\/a> I happen to agree.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Oscar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"595\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Oscar.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1070\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Oscar.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Oscar-300x293.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><em>Oscar, the &#8220;angel&#8221; cat&#8230;.<\/em><br>(Photo source: New England Journal of Medicine.)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cats have a long history of being associated with the afterlife and the supernatural. I recently watched a film called The Manor (recommended, if you&#8217;re a horror fan) and part of the storyline included a cat called Ozzie residing in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1074,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/1074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}