PURR-FECTLY FASCINATING.

---INTERESTING FACT---

There was a pet cat named Oscar that resided in a nursing home and was believed to be able to tell when one of the residents would soon die. He would sleep beside them until they passed.

---INTERESTING FACT---

Don't tell me that this is not exciting because then it would mean you are an Anhedonic. Anhedonia is the inability to experience joy ,excitement or pleasure, if you did not know now you know but am off on a tangent here let's get back to our fact story.

It is said that Oscar was a therapy cat who resided in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. He was featured in an article in the New England journal of medicine where they said he was able to predict death of the patients by sleeping beside them for a few hours until they passed away. A physician at the home said that Oscar would manage to make an appearance in the last two hours of the patient's life.

After 25 deaths with him beside patients who died, the hospital recognized the pattern and would call family members as soon as he laid beside them to give them a chance to say their goodbyes. By 2015 he is believed to have predicted 100 deaths. Studies hypothesized that he was able to smell some chemical released or odor emitted during death.

This was such an interesting fact that made me wonder of other facts that we may not be aware of. I found some interesting ones:

Cats are said to have an extra organ that allows them to taste scents in the air. Jacobson's organ (or the vomeronasal organ) is located inside their nasal cavity and it is the organ that enhances their smell sense. This is maybe why Oscar knew death scents because maybe he had picked it before. Apparently each cat has a nose unique to them much like human fingerprints.

According to the Guiness World Records, the richest cat in the world is called Blackie. Blackie is worth 7 million pounds. When his rich owner died he left all his fortune to his cat. In his will he did not recognise any of his family. Cats are said to be loyal only when they desire unlike dogs ,maybe he saw the loyalty?. Can you leave all your wealth to your pet?

There is a cat's painting called my wife's lovers that is worth close to 1 million dollars. It is the world's largest cat painting that was once owned by Kate Johnson who commissioned a painter to capture her cats in their natural element. She loved them so much that it is believed she owned hundreds of them. The painting name came from the nickname Kate's husband called the cats.

Cats became pets 9500 years ago. A French archeologist discovered a 9500 years old cat grave in Cyprus. This of course may not really mean that it was a pet but why would they bury one if they really did not value it?

Lastly an interesting one is that families in ancient Egypt used to shave off their eyebrows in mourning when their cat died and the mourning would continue until their brows grew back. Cats were so special that those who killed them, even by accident, were sentenced to death. These was because they believed that their gods and goddesses had the power to transform themselves into different animals and once the goddess named Bastet, had the power to become a cat.

And if you are a cat lover you are referred to as an ailurophile. Ailuro means cat in ancient Greek.