Reminds me of a story when I had a cat in a class.

I was taking my cat to the vet on my way to my class, however, I got stuck in a traffic jam and was going to be late for class. I decided I would take the cat in its carrier into the classroom with me so I wouldn’t have to be late. I would then take the cat to the vet after class.

As luck would have it, it happened to be April Fools’ Day.

After the class arrived, we shut the doors of the classroom. Any latecomer had to knock on the door to get in. We had one student in this class who often arrived late.

I told the class that we should pretend the cat did not exist if this student showed up late and the class loved the idea.

Sure, enough, the student showed up late, knocked on the door, was admitted, and took his seat. Meanwhile, the cat was prowling around the classroom, and the students were acting like the cat was not there.

Soon the student raised his hand, and said to me, professor there is a cat in the classroom. Did you know that?

I said there is no cat in the classroom and moved on to the next point in the class. The students feigned ignorance and looked at him like he was a bit strange. We continued with the class.

This bothered the student tremendously, and he again raised his hand and insisted there was a cat in the classroom, which of course there was!

Again we denied it and looked at him as if he were nuts. At this point, my cat was sitting on the desk, looking at the entire classroom.

My student stood up and said, there is a cat in this classroom whether you want to admit it or not there is a cat in the classroom!!

At this point, I said “April fools!” And we all laughed ourselves silly.

By chance ?

😼