Poor Schrodinger

Suddenly, Charlie is afraid of our cat. Any time Schrodinger walks in the room, Charlie starts to scream. He hops up on the nearest piece of furniture, points at him and yells for us to remove him from the room. He wants him kept out of the house or in the dining room with the door shut. Even when Schrodinger is asleep, Charlie will walk into a room, see him, and panic.

We've tried to explain that this is Schrody's home. He needs to be allowed to eat and sleep in his home. He does like being an outdoor kitty, but is not always going to be outside. Oh, and Charlie refuses to go outside on the grounds that Schrodinger could be there.

We've tried to show Charlie that he is a nice, sweet kitty. As he's nearing age 2, he's tamed a lot. No more pouncing or surprise ankle attacks. Still, Charlie insists that, "Schwodinjuw will want to wesssle me," No matter how many times we tell him that Schrodinger no longer wrestles. He insists, "Simon is my only kitty. I will call him Simey-Wimey and I will wuv him, but I will NOT wuv dat udder cat."

I emailed his teacher today to ask if something had happened or been talked about at school involving cats. As I couldn't for the life of me think of an incident at home, I wondered if a kid had talked about a mean cat or something.

She remembered that, on their field trip to the fair last week, he'd seen the white tigers, wrestling and pouncing on one another and menacing with their fangs. The guy there talked about how he 'would not be in the same room as one of these cats without a cage.'

Something must have flipped a switch in Charlie's head, because Schrodinger is no white tiger by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps his orangey color is why Simon got a pass that the grey kitty didn't?

We're going to put up a united front here and work on the differences between cats and tigers for the next few days at home and at school.

If that doesn't work, we may just dye the cat.