A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.

The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.

When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat's judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days. Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar's accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a bed and stretches out beside its occupant.

How do you stop your dog from barking? Breastfeed her, of course. It worked for Suzanne Morgan, 32, anyway:

"I opened the kitchen cupboard, only to see there wasn't a single tin of dog food left. I felt like crying. Worst of all, I knew Dixie wouldn't shut up until she'd filled her stomach. 'We must have something,' I said, as I peered inside the fridge.Then I spotted the bottles of breast milk I'd expressed earlier that day. "

"Was I the only one who fed breast milk to a dog? I got on the internet, and within minutes I'd found no end of women who'd breastfed dogs, cats, even pigs.That lunchtime, I let Tasha feed from my left breast, then Dixie from my right. I disinfected myself afterwards. I didn't expect everyone to be quite so open-minded, though."