  A Schr\"odinger-cat state is a coherent superposition of macroscopically
distinguishable quantum states, in quantum optics usually realized as
superposition of coherent states. Protocols to prepare photonic cats have been
presented for atomic systems. Here, we investigate in what manner and how well
the preparation protocols can be transferred to a solid state platform, namely
a semiconductor quantum-dot--cavity system. In quantum-dot--cavity systems
there are many disruptive influences like cavity losses, the radiative decay of
the quantum dot, and the pure-dephasing type coupling to longitudinal acoustic
phonons. We show that for one of the protocols these influences kill the
quantum coherence between the states forming the cat, while for a second
protocol a parameter regime can be identified where the essential
characteristics of Schr\"odinger-cat states survive the environmental
influences under realistic conditions.
