Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Making Rounds with Oscar

Making rounds with Oscar by David Dosa 2010

Oscar: the extraordinary cat who sits at the bedside of dying patients in a home for people suffering from Alzheimer’s. This book came to be because of Dr. Dosa’s skepticism about Oscar’s ability to tell when a patient was going to pass away. Dr. Dosa’s journey (as he meets with family members of patients who have died) leads him to learn - not only about Oscar- but also about the effects of this disease on the families and caregivers. We get an inside view of the true repercussions on those who have a dementia patient in the family. One leaves the book understanding a bit more about the true difficulties of dementia and knowing that animals may indeed have a special understanding about patients – and the amazing effect animals can have at any stage in an illness.