PLEASANT GROVE — Max, the cat that's always in a penguin suit, has more mystique than his friends at the Alpine Valley Care Center realize.

Center employees believe the 8-year-old feline can tell when people are ill or about to die — and he behaves accordingly. But to the residents who love him, Max is just a dear friend who brightens their day when he's around.

"He's just a neat cat," said Carma Beck, a resident of the Pleasant Grove rest home. "I don't know why I liked him (at first), because we never had animals at home. He's just cool, he has a 'tuxedo' on every day."

Employees say they started noticing Max's peculiar behavior around dying residents about six years ago. They haven't kept track of all of the times that the cat has stayed at an ill or dying patient's bedside, but everyone knows what it means when Max changes his routine.

Two or three days before the resident dies, Max — who normally roams freely throughout the center, making his rounds to several rooms — will start sleeping at the foot of the sick person's bed and leave only to eat or visit his litter box.

"I started watching the patients (Max) was with until they passed away," said Melodie Hurdley, charge nurse of the facility. "When (patients) don't feel good or there's something amiss, you can bet Max will be in there before you are."

Recently, a patient whose daughter works as a nurse at the facility became ill, and Max started sleeping on her bed. The nurse took notice of Max's behavior as a warning sign, and her mother passed away shortly thereafter.

"She said, 'There's Max, so that tells us something right there,"' said Bruce Allison, administrator of the Alpine Valley Care Center. "It's really interesting. I've always thought it was kind of cool that he did that, but I never thought much of it. I never thought to tell anyone."

After the residents die, Max will mope for a few days and keep to himself, Allison said.

"It's almost like when someone dies that he goes (off by himself)," Allison said. "He's mourning their not being there. He senses it and seems to have a difficult time when they leave."

Allison said he was startled this week to hear in the news of another cat, Oscar, who has discerning powers similar to Max's.

Oscar, who, unlike Max, is not normally social with residents, lives in a nursing home in Rhode Island. Oscar's behavior, which caretakers say accurately predicts death, made national news this week.

"It's wild," said Deb Burcombe, who works with the Alpine Valley Care Center through the Utah Health Care Association. "I've known about this cat for years, and then when we saw this national coverage I thought, 'We've got a cat even cooler than that."'