美國敬老院裏的一隻貓可以感知死亡的到來

Meet Oscar, a cat with a super natural ability to feel when people are about to die. In over 50 documented cases,Oscar, who lives in a nursing home , has curled up beside patients in their final hours, seeing them through to the 'other side'.

這隻叫做奧斯卡的貓可以感知人們何時即將死亡。在50起記錄中，這隻敬老院裏的貓在老人們即將離世的幾個小時前蜷縮在他們身邊，陪伴他們離開人世。

His unique story was revealed by Dr. David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, who claims Oscar's predictions have rarely been wrong in the past six years. In fact, he has even proved medical staff wrong at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island, where he was adopted seven years ago as a kitten.

披露了這個事情的是來自布朗大學的老年病學專家兼助理教授David Dosa，他稱過去6年來，來自羅德島一家敬老院的奧斯卡在預測死亡上幾乎沒有失敗過。

Dr. Dosa first told the world about Oscar'srare gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Sincethen, the cat has accurately sensed even more deaths, convincing the geriatrician that it wasn't just a series of coincidences. Dr. Dosa eventually wrote a book about his experiences with Oscar at the nursing home. It's called 'Making rounds with Oscar: The extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat'.

David Dosa在2007年的時候開始向外界透露這隻貓的天賦。從那以後，這隻貓準確預測了更多的死亡事件，所以他認爲這不是巧合。他最終爲這隻敬老院裏的貓寫了一本書。這本書叫做《與奧斯卡轉圈圈：一直平凡貓的不平凡天賦》

The book describes Oscar's daily routine,how he spends his time pacing from room to room at the nursing home, rarely spending time with patients who have still got a fighting chance of ead, he picks out certain patients and cuddles up next to them . These are often the ones who will pass away in a short time. If kept outside the roomof a dying patient, he will scratch at the door, trying to get in.

這本書記錄了奧斯卡的日常生活，記錄它如何在敬老院裏從一個房間走到另一個房間，很少花時間和還有一線生機的老人呆在一起。它會挑選某些老人，然後蜷縮在他們旁邊。而這些老人往往是即將過世的老人。如果被關在即將離世老人的房門外，它就會用爪子抓門，想要進去。

In order to test his paranormal gift, thenurses at the nursing home tried placing Oscar on the bed of a patient they thought might be close to death. But the cat simply 'charged out' and went tosit with another patient. His judgement turned out to be correct – the second patient died the same evening, while the first one lived on for two more days.

爲了測試它的這個稟賦，敬老院裏的看護人員將它放在一個他們認爲即將離世的老人身邊。但是這隻貓走開了，來到了另外一個老人身邊，而它的判斷最終證明是正確的——第二個老人當晚就去世，而第一個老人繼續活了兩天。

In his book, Dr. Dosa doesn't offer any scientific explanations for the cat's abilities, but he does suggest that Oscar– like dogs that are reportedly able to smell cancer – might be able to smell ketones, which are distinctly odored biochemicals given off by dying cells.

在他的書中，Dosa博士沒有爲貓的這種能力提供任何的科學解釋，但是他認爲像能聞出癌症的狗一樣，這隻貓可能具備了聞到酮類物質的能力，酮類是死亡細胞會散發出的一種生化物質。

Dr. Jill Goldman, a certified animal behaviorist in California, has a different theory – that Oscar'spredictions might be a learned behavior. "There has been ample opportunity forhim to make an association between 'that' smell and death." And according toanimal behaviorist Dr. Daniel Estep, Oscar may only be recognizing the patients'lack of movement and interpreting it as illness, as cats can of tensense when their owners are sick.

而來自加州的動物行爲學家JillGoldman博士則有另一種說法——他認爲奧斯卡的預測可能是一種習得性行爲。“它有足夠多的機會來在‘那種'味道和死亡之間做出聯繫。”而根據另外一名動物行爲學家的看法，奧斯卡可能意識到了病人在行動上的缺乏，並將其理解爲一種疾病，而貓通常都能感覺到自己的主人是否生病了。