Visions of Drop Dead Fred

Are you familiar with the movie Drop Dead Fred? When I first saw it I despised the mother for taking Elizabeth's imaginary friend away. As a parent, I can almost understand.

Many of you know that Wesley has imaginary cat named Fluffy. I can deal with Fluffy. I can even deal with imaginary Fluffy's imaginary dog friend, Sammy. What I cannot deal with is Wesley's alter ego, "Cooper."

I can't stand Cooper! It drives me up a wall when Wesley meows and refuses to answer to any name other than Cooper. I hate it when he refers to "Cooper" in the third person. I am sick of "cat high fives" and Cooper's "sharp claws" and Cooper "digging in the dirt" (digging in the pile of blankets." I hate having to tell Wesley he needs to be a boy. I hate hearing the question, "Can I be a cat?" I hate waking Wesley up and telling him "good morning" only to have him respond with a meow. For a while whenever Wesley was being Cooper, he'd call Ryan "Perry" and say that Perry was Cooper's pet dog. We finally put a stop to that because we were a little concerned that Ryan wouldn't know his real name.

If there was away I could put an end to Cooper without breaking Wesley's heart (and possibly putting him in therapy for years to come) I would do it in a minute. Instead, I have to suffer through the Cooper phase. And I do know it's the phase. I figure we have 9 months to a year of Cooper being around. With any luck, Cooper will disappear by the time kindergarten starts. Until then, I guess I'll need to stock up on cat treats and get a bigger litter box.