1/4/07 Cat phobias

So get this: Mason is scared of the fish. I have no idea why. I thought cats liked watching fish swim. You always see pictures of the cat curiously patting the top of the water of the goldfish bowl. But not Mason. I don't know what happened to make him afraid of them. It's not like they've ever climbed out of the tank and beaten him up or anything. (Although the fish in The Cat In The Hat suddenly comes to mind).

When he was a kitten, he used to love to sit and watch the fish swim back and forth. Now? You can't get him close to the tank. I held him up next to the glass where a couple of the angels were, and he starts hissing and spitting and fighting like mad. When I dropped him, he took off and hid in the bedroom, puffy tail and all. We've got a serious fish phobia on our hands here.

Maybe the fish got too big? The angels are a pretty impressive size now. Maybe they're too big for Mason to feel like he could comfortably control, should the fish ever figure out a way of their glass confines.

Maybe he thinks the fish hurt him. There was this one time when he was little that he suddenly lunged at the tank, hit the front and kind of slid down in slow motion like a cartoon cat. Maybe that was him trying to take the fish on, and they packed a surprising punch. ("Yeah, those fish look small, but going after them is like running face first into a solid wall").

Who knows what goes on in his little deranged kitty head? Who knows what's going on in my little deranged head for putting so much thought into this? One more question to put on the list in case I ever come across a kitty therapist.