Schrödinger’s cat – a real world example

This is one of those examples of a failure to identify your deceased cat. They’ve occurred before. There can be great difficulties in doing it accurately and this is an example. Schrödinger’s cat is a theory which states that the animal is both dead and alive at the same time. I don’t understand the theory and I don’t need or want to, but in this instance, you could say that the theory applies quite neatly.

Frankie, a 16-year-old tabby went missing from his home in Warrington, Cheshire on 19th May. He had gone on one of his usual sorties from which he normally returns. He went missing this time and friends and neighbours of Frankie’s owners, Rachel and John Fitzsimons, helped in the hunt for him but their efforts proved fruitless.

Weeks passed by and they grew increasingly concerned as to whether he had been killed on a nearby motorway which was the most likely cause. They were driving along the said motorway from Lymm one day when they passed the body of a deceased cat on the hard shoulder. They tried to photograph it but sadly it was too disfigured to identify him. They called Highways England who collected the body and their staff reported that the body matched that of Frankie.

Highways England’s staff were unable to get a reading from the cat’s microchip. The Fitzsimons family decided that it was time to collect the body and cremate it so they could formally bid farewell to their beloved cat companion. And then suddenly, out of the blue their grief was interrupted by the meowing of Frankie outside the back door asking to be let in, please!

He had been behaving as a semi-feral cat because he was bedraggled and undernourished. He had lost weight but notwithstanding his unkempt state and starvation diet he was there and they all cried and are still in shock. Now they’ve got to figure out who’s cat they cremated.

My thanks to Kaya Burgess of The Times for the Schrödinger’s cat idea.

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