Can Cats Predict a Human Death?

By Lewis Adler, 18th Oct 2011 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/3otza0ig/
Posted in Wikinut>Guides>Pets>Cats

How strange, yet appropriate, that a beautiful black cat should appear from nowhere to watch over my mother as her life ebbed away

An affinity for cats to the very end

Courtesy of Photobucket

EARLY in March 1990, my mother was discharged from Torbay Hospital in Devonshire, England and admitted to a Torquay nursing home suffering from the effects of an inoperable brain tumor. At first, she shared a room with another resident, but as her condition worsened, Mum was moved into a room of her own. Two days later, a big black cat arrived on the scene ... from where nobody seemed to know.

Mum always had a soft-spot for cats. I remember how upset she’d been when, in 1955, our old battle-scarred, street-fighter of a tomcat called Sammy was knocked down and killed on a busy road not far from our prefab near Mottingham in south-east London. I found Sammy lying dead in the gutter while I was out on a cub scout’s Bob-a-Job errand. Without delay I returned home and reported my find to Mum, and she promptly walked to the scene to satisfy herself that it was, indeed, our Sammy. Poor Mum was inconsolable for the rest of the day.

As if to heap misery upon misfortune, two years later, Sooty: a black and white tomcat we bought to replace Sammy, suffered a spinal injury. At first we thought the little bald patch on Sooty’s back was an itchy sore. However, no cream or ointment helped, because the cat would lick it off as soon as it was applied.

Then, late one Friday evening, Sooty walked into the living room where we were watching Dragnet on television. As he tried to walk under a fireside chair, his back brushed against a wooden strut. Frozen to the spot, Sooty began to yowl and spit. The noise was terrifying. Dad slowly approached the chair and gently lifted it away from the cat’s arched back. Then, placing the chair to one side, Dad gathered-up the now becalmed cat in a towel, and took him into the back garden.

Before climbing into bed that night, I shone my torch through the half open bedroom window, and quietly called Sooty’s name. Two pin-points of light appeared at the end of the garden, as the torch beam picked-out the cat’s eyes. At least he now seemed to be at rest after his earlier ordeal.

The following morning, I awoke early and went straight to my bedroom window. Sooty was nowhere to be seen. I raced into the kitchen and unlocked the back door. There, wedged between the prefab wall and a broom-head our cat sat staring-up at me with wide pleading eyes. “Come on then Sooty,” I called. “C’mon on boy. Come and have some breakfast”. Sooty didn’t move.

“Mum!” I shouted, “come quickly, I think there’s something wrong with Sooty.” Mum was by my side in a few seconds. “Try moving the broom, David,” she said. Holding my breath, I gently removed the broom from beside the cat’s body and, as I did so, he raised himself up on his front legs. I sighed with relief. However, as he stepped towards the back door, my sense of relief turned to horror. Sooty was hauling himself along on his front paws. His back legs, trailing pitifully behind him, were useless. He was paralysed.

Mum burst into tears, and I felt an aching helplessness in my chest. There was obviously nothing either of us could do for our pet cat except make him as comfortable as possible. Later that morning, Dad and I took Sooty to the local PDSA clinic where he was put out of his misery. The vet concluded that our pet had been bitten by a dog or a fox, and the wound had damaged his spinal cord, which – the night before – had severed.

On our return home, Mum was still crying, and she remained deeply upset by the experience for several weeks. In common with the fondly remembered Sammy, she had quickly formed a powerful bond with Sooty, and now he too had been taken from her in equally distressing circumstances.

How apt, then, that some thirty-three years later, a big black tomcat should appear out of nowhere as Mum drifted inexorably towards her own passing from the physical. The first time I saw that handsome feline specimen, he was curled-up on the chair next to Mum’s bed. Instinctively, I felt that this magnificent creature had arrived on the scene to assist in some way, and so I insisted that it should be allowed to wander in and out of my mother’s room at will.

Over the next few days, each time I arrived at the nursing home, the big black cat would be on sentry duty; either asleep on Mum’s bed or quietly washing himself on the bedside chair. In fact, on one occasion, I lifted the cat close to Mum’s face so she could stroke it and say hello. How moving it was to witness her empathy with, and unconditional love for, that beautiful animal. As desperately ill as she was, Mum was still able to tickle him under the chin and call him “boofles” ... an affectionate term she had used for both Sammy and Sooty all those years before.

On the afternoon of March 22, 1990, I was advised by a doctor that Mum’s time was very close, so the big black tomcat and I held a four hour vigil at her bedside as she slipped deeper into unconsciousness. Mum passed peacefully into spirit on that same evening and, according to the nursing home matron, the mysterious black cat walked out of the building shortly before Mum’s passing at 8.50pm. He was never seen again.


Copyright: Lewis Adler (aka David Lowe)n 2000

Mark Gordon Brown moderated this page.
If you have any complaints about this content, please let us know

Wikinut search

Wikinut options

• Help
• Contact us

Similar pages

Cool Breeds of Dogs
Hunter J

My Cat Poppy
jennyreeve

A Poem in Memory of Our Two Cats
David Edgar Lewis

Diabetes in Your Cat
jennyreeve

This Is How I Know My Cat is Lazy
jennyreeve

Tips On Moving Home With Your Pet
jennyreeve

AIDS in Cats
jennyreeve

Oral Care in Your Pet - They Need Clean Teeth Too.
jennyreeve

Your Senior Cat
jennyreeve

Scottish Fold Cats
Christine Crowley

Have You Ever Tried To Tell A Cat What To Do?
Christine Crowley

Pumpkin's Date with the Outside
Christine Crowley

Featured pages

Do you think dating sites spoiling the culture?
vidhyaprakash

Nature or Nurture: Environmental Influence on Genes
Uma Shankari

Baked Chicken Chimichangas
Christi Harris

Temporary E-mail
Zenith

Apocalyptic art by Chris Kuksi
tony leather

That Mysterious #Hashtag
cowboynextdoor

Garden Designs And Ideas
C J Evans

Crack Those Ads
Abhijit Bangal

How To Purchase Quality Lingerie At Inexpensive Prices
Julianna Evans

atmospheric conditions and words
yellowzigzag

Different Types of Wedding Jewelry
ueeree

Why don’t we all speak Chinese?
Erik Sundström

Page categories

• Star pages
• Wikinut
• Guides
• Pets
• • Adoption & Rescue
  • Amphibians
  • Birds
  • Cats
  • Chickens
  • Crustaceans
  • Dogs
  • Farm Animals
  • Fish
  • Horses
  • Other
  • Rabbits
  • Reptiles
  • Rodents
  • Spiders & Insects
  • Tips & Advice