London, February 2 (ANI): A cat in Rhode Island has stunned all after being able to detect which nursing home patients were close to death before curling up with them in their final hours, a new book claims.

Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, alleged five years of records showed that Oscar has proven itself in around 50 cases.

“It’s not like he dawdles. He’ll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he’s back at the patient’s side. It’s like he’s literally on a vigil,” the Telegraph quoted Dr Dosa as saying in his book, “Making rounds with Oscar: the extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat”.

The tortoiseshell and white cat, adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, apparently moves from room to room and spends time with only those close to death.

If it is kept from entering the room of a dying patient, Oscar scratches on the door to get in, the paper said.

The feline was said to have once proved medical staff wrong in their predictions when it was placed on the bed of a patient believed to be nearing the end.

Oscar allegedly “charged out” and went to another room to sit beside someone, who died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.

Dr Dosa added: “People were actually taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass. He was there when they couldn’t be.” (ANI)