I was watching, and my cat saw the end of, a pbs special on skunks. He was OK unti they showed a ground level shot of a skunk skittering across the screen. He has always watched the TV with unusual interest, but he jumped up and ran out of the room. Now he will barely even come in the house, and when he does he "sneaks away" like he might be seen and immediately leaves the house. (by sneaking away I mean the way they walk very low to the ground) how can I make him understand that the stuff on the screen isn't real?

A cat, is a cat, is a cat. Now if you were talking about a dog, then that would be a different story, but unfortunately your cat will just have to lose this incident from its memory and seeing as they have a low attention span, then that will be soon.

If I worried about every crazy thing my cat did and there are quite a few day by day, then I would be on anti depressants soon enough.

Tick

Agree, One of my favorite sayings at work when questioned about cat behavior is "Cause, cats is cats"
Most times you just don't know why they do some things. I used to have a cat that would walk sideways up to a doorway and jump over the threshold, the entire time watching the floor as if it would jump up and bite him. For 13 years I never understood why. They are quirky little things.