CRESTVIEW — Resident deaths are inevitable at nursing homes.
But at Crestview Manor, the dying, their family members and caregivers, along with facility staffers, receive comfort from an unexpected member of the facility’s staff.
Newman, one of the Manor’s two housecats, has a knack for identifying residents nearing the end of their lives, and he visits those in particular, according to staffers.
“He actually knows when our people are going to Jesus before we do,” director Becky Brice-Nash said Monday morning. “We thought it was a fluke, but he’s done it eight or 10 times now.
“We have a lady who’s probably on the bridge to go home. He immediately came in, comforted the hospice nurse and got on the bed with the resident.”
Danielle Crider, a nurse with the facility's partner, Emerald Coast Hospice, said she has seen Newman selectively visit dying residents too many times to call it a coincidence.
“It’s only when they’re to the point that they’re getting ready to pass away that he arrives,” Crider said.
'IT'S A COMFORT'
Manor staffers say Newman is Crestview’s version of Oscar, a cat who prowls Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center's hallways in Providence, Rhode Island. Since 2007, Oscar has accurately visited more than 100 residents during their final hours.
Doctors throughout the country have offered a number of explanations for the phenomena. These range from a cat's sense of smell for odors associated with death; terminal patients' lack of movement; and dying people's lack of noise.
Brice-Nash said Newman’s presence isn't feared; it's seen as soothing. “With some who are crossing the bridge, when the family comes in and he’s there to greet them, it’s a comfort,” she said. “He comforts the residents, he comforts the staff and he comforts the family.”
“I’ve had a family tell me, ‘You know, that cat told us she (their loved one) was ready,’” Crider said.
'IT'S A WONDERFUL THING'
Newman came to Crestview Manor four years ago as an abused shelter kitten. He joined Sadie, an older cat who does not have the same sense of impending death.
He spends much of the day dozing on a bench in front of his favorite window when not patrolling the corridors. When he suddenly decides to visit a terminal resident, it signals that the end is near.
“It’s only when they’re transitioning that he shows up,” Crider said. “He finds his way to their room and comes in. He’ll circle my legs when I’m with them.”
“It’s his choice if he decides to go in with a resident,” Brice-Nash said. “When Newman goes into a room, we just think it’s a wonderful thing.”
'CLOSEST TO GOD'
Brice-Nash said when Crider was upset that her patient was dying, Newman comforted her nurse, too. “That’s the cool thing about Newman,” she said. “He knows who is in need of comfort.”
“He’ll just start roaming the halls,” Manor chaplain Bud Morgan said. “He stops and looks in a room and moves on. But sometimes, he’ll go into the room.”
Residents enjoy having Newman and Sadie as part of the manor’s family, Brice-Nash said.
“I like him,” resident Russell Bety said. “I just like cats, but he’s very special.”
Brice-Nash said it’s sad that many facilities don’t allow pets, particularly since studies show their presence can help people.
“It comforts the residents and helps them live longer,” she said. “We have to clean up a little cat hair, but we can deal with that.
"Dogs are very loving, but cats are closest to God.”
NEWMAN, THE CAT
Crestview Manor’s housecat — named after late Hollywood actor Paul Newman because “his eyes are like blue marbles" — was an abused rescue kitten found on Okaloosa Island with a gaping sore on his side, Becky Brice-Nash, the facility's director, said.
She went into Petsmart four years ago “to buy goldfish food for the residents’ aquarium and I came out with $200 worth of cat.” Newman, who recovered from his injuries, now is a resident at the manor, where residents and staffers appreciate his companionship. “He’s such a good-tempered cat,” Brice-Nash said.
OSCAR
Oscar, a death-predicting cat at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, preceded Newman's talents.
“Within a half-hour the family starts to arrive," Dr. David Dosa described in the July 26, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine. "Chairs are brought into the room, where the relatives begin their vigil. The priest is called to deliver last rites. And still, Oscar has not budged, instead purring and gently nuzzling Mrs. K.
"A young grandson asks his mother, ‘What is the cat doing here?’ The mother, fighting back tears, tells him, ‘He is here to help Grandma get to heaven.’ Thirty minutes later, Mrs. K. takes her last earthly breath. With this, Oscar sits up, looks around, then departs the room so quietly that the grieving family barely notices.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Manor cat senses residents' impending death (PHOTOS, VIDEO)