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Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.David Dosa 医生是位老年医学专家，也是布朗大学的助理教授，他说根据五年的记录，在新英格兰看护之家的猫猫奥斯卡很少犯错，有时候还能证明是医护人员在判定病人是否濒临死亡时犯了错。The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island, which specialises in caring for people with severe dementia.
这只猫今年五岁了，平时不太爱和人亲近，当它还是小猫的时候就被罗得岛这家专门照顾老年痴呆症的病人的看护康复中心收养了。Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar"s gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the geriatrician that it is no fluke.
Dosa 第一次公开发表这只猫的天赋是在2007年的《新英格兰医学杂志》上。从那时候起，这只猫已经把预知死亡的次数翻倍了，它向老年医学专家证明了自己不是侥幸的。The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.
这只有花纹的白猫通常都会从一个房间散步到另一个房间，很少会花时间和病人在一起，除非是那些生命只剩下几个小时了的病人。If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.
如果把它关到一位将死的病人的房间外面，奥斯卡会一直抓门想要进去。When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat"s judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.
一次医护人员以为一位病人快要去世了，就把奥斯卡放到这位病人的床上。奥斯卡挣脱了跑去坐在了另一个房间的一位病人旁边。这只猫的判断力比医护人员要好得多：第二位病人当天晚上就去世了，第一位病人活了两天多。Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar"s accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a bed and stretches out beside its occupant.
Dosa 医生和其他员工对奥斯卡的准确率很有信心，只要奥斯卡跳上一位病人的床开始伸爪去碰这位病人的时候，他们就会通知病人的家属。"It"s not like he dawdles. He"ll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he"s back at the patient"s side. It"s like he"s literally on a vigil," Dr Dosa wrote.
Dosa 医生写道，“他不是游手好闲四处乱走的，他会溜走两分钟，找点粗粮什么的然后回来呆在病人的旁边，看上去他像在做监护。”Dr Dosa noted that the nursing home keeps five other cats, but none of the others have ever displayed a similar ability.
Dosa 医生注意到这家看护之家另外还养了五只猫，但是没有一只显示出有和奥斯卡类似的能力。In his book, "Making rounds with Oscar: the extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat", Dr Dosa offers no solid scientific explanation for Oscar"s behaviour.
在他《在奥斯卡身边：一只平凡猫的超凡能力》一书中，Dosa 医生没有为奥斯卡的行为提供任何合理的科学解释。He suggests Oscar is able - like dogs, which can reportedly smell cancer - to detect ketones, the distinctly-odoured biochemicals given off by dying cells.
他暗示奥斯卡有能力探测出正在死亡的细胞产生的酮——就像报道过的那只能闻出癌症的狗一样。Far from recoiling from Oscar"s presence, now they know its significance, relatives and friends of patients have been comforted and sometimes praised the cat in newspaper death notices and eulogies, said Dr Dosa.
Dosa 医生说，就算知道了事情的重要性，病人们的家人和朋友也并没有害怕奥斯卡的出现。奥斯卡给他们带来了安慰，有时他们还会在报上的讣告和悼词中表扬它。"People were actually taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass. He was there when they couldn"t be," he said.
他说，“人们认为，这只猫在他们挚爱的人去世的时候会陪在这个人的身边，或者可能在身边，这样的想法会让他们很安慰：在自己不能陪在亲人身边的时候，这只猫在陪着他。”
沪江小编：由此看来，奥斯卡应该就是豪斯大叔里面那只能预知老年患者死亡的猫的原型了。根据豪斯大叔的解释，是说一般老年人到了要撒手人寰的时候身体都会特别虚弱，所以医护人员会给他们用上电热毯，猫猫的特性之一就是哪里暖和哪里呆着。不过就本文写出的各种表现来看，这种解释还不能说明所有的现象。自然界总是有着各种神奇的事情等待着我们去探索和发现。
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