When death comes calling, so does Oscar...

[kimmy]

Yes, I've heard of dogs being trained to detect illnes...however, we're talking of training.

As to how these training are done I have no idea. How many percentage of accuracy I have no idea.

But Oscar is a natural. 25 cases - that's a track record hard to beat.

Could you train a dog to fly? No. Why? Because no amount of training can make up for the fact that dogs don't have the ability to fly.

You can train scent-hounds to detect cancer in the same way that they can detect drugs. It's within their ability. It's apparently not even very hard:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...dog_cancer.html

Ordinary household dogs with only a few weeks of basic "puppy training" learned to accurately distinguish between breath samples of lung- and breast-cancer patients and healthy subjects.

How accurate?

The results of the study showed that the dogs could detect breast cancer and lung cancer between 88 and 97 percent of the time.

Training doesn't improve a dog's sense of smell. The training is merely to tell the dog which scent you're interested in, and to keep it from getting distracted by other scents:

In any event, it is established by those who train tracking dogs that it is impossible to teach the dog how to track any better than it does naturally; the object instead is to motivate it properly, and teach it to maintain focus on a single track and ignore any others that might otherwise seem of greater interest to an untrained dog. An intensive search for a scent, for instance searching a ship for contraband, can actually be very fatiguing for a dog, and the dog must be motivated to continue this hard work for a long period of time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Smell

How does any of this apply to Oscar? Well, the claim was that some animals have senses that far exceed human senses (and even medical machines in some situations) and that there could be a very simple scientific explanation for what Oscar does. At one point a dog that could detect cancer 90+% of the time would have been considered a Miracle Dog, but as it turns out, there's a very prosaic explanation. Cancer cells generate metabolic wastes with telltale chemical markers that are excreted through the lungs and urine and can be smelled by dogs. hmm. Not miraculous after all. How likely is it that there's an equally boring explanation for Oscar's uncanny ability? Very likely, in my opinion.

The spiritual/supernatural expalanation may provide proof of life after death. Who knows, perhaps scientific research may end up supporting the theory of life after death.

...and if it could be proven that there's a god, it would probably prove that there's a god.

I don't mean to make light of this, but to prove that Oscar is communicating with spirits, you'd have to prove that there are spirits for him to communicate with, which despite centuries of devoted study has never actually been accomplished.

Would you even really want to prove any of this scientifically? It seems to be that the value of faith comes from the fact that it's ...well, faith. Wouldn't it become less special if it could be demonstrated in some kind of experiment? Doesn't the power of your conviction come from the trust you've placed in ideas that are inherently unprovable?

To me, it seems like "I trust Jesus" is a far more profound basis for faith than "the magic kitty showed me that spirits are real."

-k

[jefferiah]

That's one creepy magic kitty.

[August1991]

Summer is always a slow news season. Editors get desperate to fill the pages.

[sharkman]

There was a news story just recently where a woman went to get her breast checked out since her dog "wouldn't leave it alone". Yep, cancer.

In the cat's case, however, it's possible kitty is a killer. A family friend had a cat that would climb up on a child's face during the night and curl up, partially suffocating the kid. I think they finally got rid of it.

[Guest American Woman]

There was a news story just recently where a woman went to get her breast checked out since her dog "wouldn't leave it alone". Yep, cancer.

In the cat's case, however, it's possible kitty is a killer. A family friend had a cat that would climb up on a child's face during the night and curl up, partially suffocating the kid. I think they finally got rid of it.

So this cat would climb up on the child's face during the night, partially suffocating it, and you think they finally got rid of it??

I think it's a pretty safe bet that the staff and family of the nursing home residents who died might notice if Oscar were sleeping on the faces of the deceased before they died, and if he were, wouldn't stand by, doing nothing, allow it to happen. I'm also guessing the nursing home wouldn't keep him around if he were doing that.

[buffycat]

American Woman - wrt sharkman's post above - some folk just hate cats.

I have no problem with believing that animals "see" things differently amongst the Kingdoms. Have you ever seen the way insects "see" flowers?

Who is to say that this little kitty can't "see" what's coming?

[ScottSA]

although I fail to see how earthquakes or labored breathing or rotting flesh have anything to do with impending death,

Laboured breathing? Rotting flesh?

Dogs have been trained to detect cancer using normal scent-hound training techniques.

Yes, the kitty providing sympathy and warmth for patients in their final moments is an interesting, unusual, and sort of touching story. But we know of many instances where the exceptionally acute senses of our furry little friends can detect things that are undetectable to human sense. I see a scientific explanation as being a lot more likely than something the supernatural. Animals using their senses to detect human medical conditions has been documented; I'm not aware of any documented cases of animals interacting with the supernatural.

Oscar might be a Very Special Kitty, but I'm not prepared to believe he's a Magic Kitty just yet.

-k

Nor am I, but I don't think "magic" has much to do with it. I can certainly see animals having the ability to detect cancer, or drugs, or athelete's foot, because all those things give off scents. I even know human nurses and doctors who can 'smell' sickness on people's breath. But impending death is an intangible, and it seems to me quite apart from the examples you cited.

I'm quite willing to believe that there's a scientific explanation, but I also happen to believe that supernatural things do happen at death and near death, and many medical practitioners who deal with and witness death as a routine part of their job (mostly nurses) are well aware that people see 'beyond' on their deathbeds. One nurse, for instance, gets goosebumps from patients with whom she had a connection prior to death. In her explanation it's the spirit "hugging" her on its way to the light.

I'm sure this sounds like weirdness, but it's really not. There are a lot of atheists who are gonna be surprised one day, and a lot of agnostics who are gonna wonder why they didn't know it all along...

[cybercoma]

You can believe whatever you want, that doesn't give it any sort of credibility though...

[betsy]

You can believe whatever you want, that doesn't give it any sort of credibility though...

But the possibility is there! To conclude that it cannot be does not have any credibility either, since it also has not been proven.

One thing is for sure: this cat had attracted the attention of the medical field.

Edited July 31, 2007 by betsy

[M.Dancer]

One thing is for sure: this cat had attracted the attention of the medical field.

Ummm....no