Sixth sense
Animals can be our best friends. They know when we’re happy and when we’re sad. They can even compete against humans. But some animals have even been said to have a sixth sense, as they are better than others at reading our emotions.
One of these is eight-year-old cat Paddy. He has developed a habit of turning up at funerals, becoming a well-known presence at a funeral directors in northwest England. He went missing from his home for a few days three years ago, and after putting up flyers locally, his owners were contacted by the funeral home. He was rescued from a farm when he was a kitten, and has lived near the funeral home with his family ever since.
The ginger cat has shown up at more than 100 funerals and ceremonies, becoming a familiar and comforting face at the funeral home. Carol Paton, member of staff at the Co-operative Funeral Care branch, described Paddy as “having a sixth sense” for funerals – he’s allowed to stay if the family of the deceased are happy to have him there.
Often, if the deceased liked cats, the family will be actively hoping for Paddy to turn up. Paton described one occasion on which Paddy made an appearance just as the eulogy went on to mention the departed individual’s love for cats.
Not the only one
Paddy isn’t the only cat who seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to death. It’s well-known that cats can be a welcoming presence in hospitals and care homes, offering a form of therapy for people with dementia and other health problems. One such cat, Oscar, works as a therapy cat in a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. He seems to know when terminally ill patients are about to die, by choosing to nap beside them a few hours before they pass away, as if he has a sixth sense for death. According to Dr. David Dosa, he was quite a shy kitten at first, and would only seem to come out when somebody was close to death.
If you don’t have any animals of your own, enter a virtual world!
