A cat living in one of the American nursing homes, with its ability to predict the death of patients, made doctors shrug their shoulders in bewilderment.
Oscar has a habit of curling up in a ball next to patients at home in Providence, Rhode Island, during their final hours.
According to the author of an article in the American medical journal New England Journal of Medicine, the two-year-old cat accurately "predicted" death in 25 cases.
It got to the point that nursing home staff, having found a cat sitting next to another patient, immediately call relatives to warn them: perhaps it's time to prepare for the worst.
“He's not often wrong,” Brown University professor David Dosa, who has researched the feline phenomenon, told the Associated Press. "Apparently, he understands when a patient is on the verge of death."
Premonition
Oscar ended up in a nursing home as a little kitten.
The cat goes around the wards every day, like doctors and nurses, but is not particularly friendly with patients.
As soon as he shows friendliness and fits next to the patient, everyone understands that this is no accident.
Although most relatives are grateful to the cat for the "warning", some ask that the cat be removed from the room while they say goodbye to a loved one who is dying.
When the cat is chased away, he begins to run up and down in front of the doors with displeasure and meow loudly - this is how he expresses his protest, the doctors say.
Thomas Graves, a zoologist at the University of Illinois, told the BBC: "Cats often sense when their owners are sick, or when an animal is sick."
According to a zoologist specializing in the feline family, "cats can sense impending changes in the weather, they are known to anticipate earthquakes."
Doctors who care for nursing home patients tend to think that the explanation for a cat's abilities is more likely to be found in the field of biochemistry than in the field of the paranormal.