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Children are impossible.

Case in point - this happened yesterday.

My boys were jumping on the trampoline - together - despite having been told not to.
I was hanging the washing out next to them.

Older boy jumped on the younger one's leg. Twice. (lots of tears).
So I told him to get off and let his brother jump by himself for a while.

The younger brother kept encouraging him back and he kept starting back but I kept saying... No... Not together.
Eventually I told the boys to swap.

Younger boy (5) would not get off. I lifted him off.
He had a tantrum on the grass.
Then he went and dismantled his cubby house - (remember that all this time I'm trying to hang out washing).

He carried the slide part of his cubby back to the trampoline.
I saw what was happening and said "don't put the slide on the trampoline"
He waited till I bent down to get another item from the basket - and started again.

I looked at him and said sharply - No.... DONT put that on the trampoline.

He looked directly at me and put it on.

This made his brother slip and fall - luckily not injuring himself.

After checking that his older brother was ok, I took the younger one by the hand and led him inside. I said... I guess you'll have to stay inside since you can't play outside nicely.

His older brother got bored now that nobody was trying to kill him and followed him inside.

No spanking nothing... Can someone explain to me how my younger son will learn from this?

Sorry if this seems to be going a little off topic - but I'm not really (I think)... It's still about discipline.

If we all had higher standards maybe animal abuse wouldn't happen in the first place? You should treat everyone with kindness, respect, and love, human or animal.

I think it's a bit excessive to suggest that after one such incident the child needs counseling or is a potential future serial killer. On the other hand, I don't get why some here are objecting to the suggestion that the OP find another home for the cat, at least temporarily.

For one, it seems that the child is not fully comprehending the consequences of his actions. That's really not weird for a three year old at all, and given time and proper direction that's something he'll most likely learn. In the meantime, however, it's really not fair to the cat to leave him in the path of potential harm just because you know your son didn't really understand what he was doing, and wouldn't have done it if he had understood. That isn't protecting either the cat or the child. The child needs time and the right environment to learn this lesson in a way that his healthy for him, and not harmful to anyone or anything else. If you really worry that he might physically harm the cat again, then the cat doesn't belong in your child's environment. (I'm not saying get rid of the cat, just ask a friend to keep him for a while until you feel the two are going to be safe together again.)

For two, there's a real possibility that the cat has connected his pain and fear with your son. If he feels threatened by your son in the future, he may well not be as gentle. If the cat lashes back when he feels unsafe, it might be a really vivid lesson in consequences for your son, but it probably won't be a good one. You want your son to learn empathy for the cat, not learn to see the cat as a danger or something he fights with. Now, you did say that your cat is unusually gentle... I suppose all my point is is that in my experience even the most gentle animal will get very nasty if they're truly afraid, and a sixteen pound cat can cause waaay more damage than you might imagine.

In the end, only you know what the risk is of your son doing something like this again is, so I don't know how much value any of our opinions really have. But you're a parent, and your duty is to put your child's development and welfare above any of your other concerns (guilt over punishing him when you think he didn't mean it, fear of losing your beloved cat, etc). It would be great if you could do that while still protecting the cat, because it depends on you quite a bit too. Good luck with that, and I'm sure your concern alone will help your son learn this important lesson.

Well strictly speaking discipline means to teach, not necessarily to hurt - though a lot of people don't know the difference.

Most times I teach only. I very rarely hit my children - and even then not hard unless they're doing something that is life threatening. (example - deliberately ignoring us and running onto a busy road). In that case, I consider any minor pain I inflict to be the lesser evil - certainly less than death which would be inflicted by an oncoming vehicle.

We only instigated the dog-harm retaliation policy a week or two ago and haven't had to use it much. When a reaction is absolutely guaranteed my son seems to let the matter drop. Of course, I want him to NOT want to harm the dog because he understands that the dog feels pain - not because he's afraid of retaliation - hence discipline (teaching).

What did I miss? (OP "edited" the original post)

That's another thing. Cats often don't like toddlers much anyway. Won't your cat just run and hide under the sofa, far out of reach? He will find a good hiding place and you won't have to worry.