Dosa, David. Making the rounds with Oscar : the inspirational story of a doctor, his patients and a very special cat, London : Headline, 2011.

This book is written by David Dosa,  a geriatrician at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island. After Dosa wrote an essay about Oscar’s special ability to predict when a patient was about to die, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, the story became a global one and this fascinating book is about his work and about Oscar.  Oscar was adopted by the centre as a stray kitten in 2005 and the dementia unit became his home.  Oscar is usually aloof, like many cats and does not actively seek the companionship of humans, but when a patient is near death he will jump onto their bed at least two to four hours beforehand, snuggle up to them and purr contentedly as if giving them a sense of comfort until they pass away.  He then stays with them until the undertaker takes them away and watches them go down the corridor, as if bidding them farewell. The book is a fascinating read and includes interviews with various people who have had firsthand experiences with Oscar and they talk about their thoughts and the feelings that they and others have about Oscar.

Making the rounds with Oscar : the inspirational story of a doctor, his patients and a very special cat is on the bestseller list for:- Barnes & Noble, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Booksense and Amazon.com.