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teri_reads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
4.5
This book was so incredibly sweet. I expected to just read a bunch of tales of a sweet cat that lives in a nursing home, but there ended up being so much meaningful conversation of memory care and end of life care, and all the different ways that it affects the patients and their families.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Dementia, and Death of parent
taliatalksbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
4.0
I don’t often read nonfiction, but a story about a cat comforting patients with dementia as they pass on is definitely a worthwhile step outside my typical fiction reads. An added bonus was this takes place in Rhode Island (where I’m from)! I loved learning all about the families Oscar helped at Steere House. While this story certainly had its sad moments, Oscars comforting presence was felt throughout the pages, and I would say that this little miraculous cat is worth the emotional journey this book takes you on. I truly enjoyed the book cover to cover and knowing it is only minutes away from where I grew up is the perfect cherry on top. If you want to learn more about Oscar, I would definitely check out this book, but there are also plenty of articles and videos online about the amazing work Oscar did in his life. (Oscar himself gets a 200000/10 for being so precious)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Dementia, and Death of parent
balesnar's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse, Genocide, Infertility, Racism, Suicide, and Xenophobia
kristinas_booksncats's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
I loved this book! Finished in less than a day! The author's voice is genuine and enjoyable to read! If you work in healthcare or have family/friends who are dealing with health problems then I especially recommend this book. It provided wonderful insights into that world in an enjoyable and easy to understand manner. Also, I mean if you like cats at all this is quite entertaining :)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
bibliocat's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This book was a discount find, to be added to my section on feline non-fiction books.
Oscar is a cat residing at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island, and he seems to have the unusual ability of knowing when one of the facility's residents is about to pass. Oscar was described by the author, a doctor, as being a bit stand-offish with him, but Oscar would take up vigil on the patient's bed within hours of their passing. How does he know? Does he really care? No one is ever going to be able to answer those questions, but at least there was a tiny amount of discussion about this in the afterword.
I'm glad we did get to understand how resident cats came to live at Steere House (they had 6 at the time of the book). Only Oscar seemed to have the instinct to be with the actively passing patients, and unfortunately we didn't get to hear much about the others beyond their names. Approximately half of the book is about Oscar, but the half that is the emotional center of this book revolves around the lives and stories of the patients in the nursing home. The prose flows well from one patient to another, day to day, and how the families of the Alzheimer's patients react to seeing the decline of their love ones. It got to be quite a tear jerker experience by the end.
This book is certainly not a technical journal on Alzheimer's, but I did learn some new terminology and explanations of the disease, which was interesting.
Oscar is a cat residing at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rhode Island, and he seems to have the unusual ability of knowing when one of the facility's residents is about to pass. Oscar was described by the author, a doctor, as being a bit stand-offish with him, but Oscar would take up vigil on the patient's bed within hours of their passing. How does he know? Does he really care? No one is ever going to be able to answer those questions, but at least there was a tiny amount of discussion about this in the afterword.
I'm glad we did get to understand how resident cats came to live at Steere House (they had 6 at the time of the book). Only Oscar seemed to have the instinct to be with the actively passing patients, and unfortunately we didn't get to hear much about the others beyond their names. Approximately half of the book is about Oscar, but the half that is the emotional center of this book revolves around the lives and stories of the patients in the nursing home. The prose flows well from one patient to another, day to day, and how the families of the Alzheimer's patients react to seeing the decline of their love ones. It got to be quite a tear jerker experience by the end.
This book is certainly not a technical journal on Alzheimer's, but I did learn some new terminology and explanations of the disease, which was interesting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Dementia, and Death of parent
Minor: Antisemitism