China Mourns Death of Psychic World Cup Cat

By Samantha Kennedy

A stray cat in Beijing that became famous for successfully predicting the winners of World Cup games passed away earlier this week, China Daily reports.

The psychic cat, named Baidianr, had been staying at Beijing's Palace Museum. Baidianr became an online sensation after correctly predicting the outcome of the opening game between Russia and Saudi Arabia on June 14.

Staff members at the Palace Museum had the feline Nostradamus make match predictions by putting two bowls of cat food out prior to each game. The bowls were decorated with flags representing the countries competing in each match. Whichever bowl Baidianr chose would be recorded as his predicted winner for the game.

Images via Palace Museum/Weibo

After picking Russia in the opening game, Baidianr gained the hearts of tens of thousands of Weibo users by correctly picking the winners of six consecutive matches. Baidianr's guesses weren't always perfect, though, and the cat did call a few games incorrectly.

Unfortunately, Baidianr was taken to an animal hospital on June 27 after falling gravely ill. Baidianr's back legs were paralyzed and Palace Museum staff said the cat was moving in pain.

The museum opened a special Weibo account for the cat to update social media users on its health status. The account had over 21,000 followers.

Sadly, on the morning of July 2, it was announced that Baidianr had passed away, just a few days before the start of the World Cup quarterfinals. Baidianr's Weibo fans left behind thousands of comments bidding the cat a final farewell.

(Luckily, Baidianr did not suffer the same choppy demise as the psychic Japanese octupus that was killed and turned into sashimi before it could make its World Cup quarterfinal picks).

In the meantime, a new Palace Museum-based cat named Changtuir is filling in for the remaining games. Changtuir is following in his predecessor's footsteps, too — the clairvoyant cat has already correctly prophesied two games.

Additional contribution by Bridget O'Donnell

[Top image via Baidianr's official Weibo page]

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