All work is my own. This story has nothing to do with Erwin Schrödinger’s actual dog, if he had one.
Fido was looking towards the horizon. His dear owner would be back soon, he knew it. He always came back.
They had gone on a trip in their car as they had done so many times, and Fido had been so, so happy. The only thing better than going by car was to run around in the countryside, and he couldn’t wait to get there.
His owner had put his leash on. He usually didn’t when they were out in the forest, but today he did. It didn’t matter, Fido was just happy to be out there. He didn’t even mind when he tied him to the tree.
Then he left. Fido didn’t like it when he left. He barked and he barked, but his owner didn’t look back.
The more time went by, the sadder Fido got. He’d never left him for this long in a strange place before. There had to be some kind of mistake.
Days went by. He had tried everything. Digging a hole. Barking. Barking a lot. Nothing worked.
It started raining. It rained all night and he was soaking wet and cold, but at least he had water. He dreamt of steaks and sausages. The good life, as it used to be. Now he had nothing but a tree. Which did come in handy every once in a while, but still not much.
A cat came walking towards him.
-Hey, cat! Fido shouted. The cat disappeared. Fido lay down with a small disappointed whine.
-Hello dog...
He jumped around. Barked. The cat was watching him from just outside the leash’ reach.
-You look… tied up, the cat said and split in two. Now there were two cats looking exactly the same.
-Who are you? The dog asked. This was highly irregular, but he didn’t care. He was happy to have someone to someone to talk with. He hated being alone.
-We’re a cat!
The two moved together, merged into one. Dog rubbed his eyes. The cat was gone.
-Just my imagination, Fido said to himself. -Probably the hunger.
-Up here. The cat was in the tree now. Another was floating in the air.
I’m obviously going crazy, Fido thought.
-Would you like to be… free? one of the cats asked.
-He would like to free... Said the other.
-I sure would.
-You can if you want to.
-You can if you really really want to.
-I’m tied to the tree... I can’t go anywhere! He spun around a couple of times, whining, and lay down.
-You are tied to a tree... And you are not. The cats merged into one again, and split up on the other side.
-How do you do that? Dog asked.
-I can do what ever I want.
One of the cats went over, opened the hatch on his neck with a sharp claw. The other did nothing.
-There you go... Run off.
The dog ran around a few times, jumping, whining of happiness, barking, wagging his tail.
-Thank you, cat! Thank you thank you thank you! You’re the best!
He ran away. He could hear himself howl a sad cry back where he was before. He was still there, soon to be dead.
Dead and alive at once.
This story was inspired by this game from Crounchy Brothers:
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/692449
And, of course, this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
http://www.iflscience.com/physics/schr%c3%b6dinger%e2%80%99s-cat-explained/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation
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