It’s a sad day when a psychic animal that has predicted the outcome of several World Cup matches passes away, it’s an even sadder week when it happens to two of them.
Following the unfortunate transformation of Rabiot the octopus into food, Beijing’s Palace Museum has announced the death of Baidianr, a resident cat that successfully called six World Cup results.
Rabiot was a giant Pacific octopus captured by a fisherman in Hokkaido that correctly picked Japan‘s first three matches before he was sold to the fish markets to become a tasty, ESP-having snack.
Unlike Rabiot, who was choosing between food baskets marked ‘win’, ‘loss’, or ‘draw’, Baidianr – a ginger whose name means ‘white spot’ – had been choosing between two bowls marked with the teams involved in the match.
According to The Straits Times, the museum reported that the cat had become very ill after making six correct consecutive predictions, following which it was admitted to hospital. After reports of heavy breathing and paralysis of its hind legs, the cat was announced dead on Monday.
Although (obviously) nothing could ever replace Baidianr in our hearts, another cat named Changtuir has been filling in ever since and has so far made two consecutive correct guesses. What are the odds?
(1 in 4.)
