The Experiment

Jack has been planning his science fair project for weeks, and tonight was the night to run the experiment. He wanted to find out if cats are any good at following scent trails the way dogs are, and if cats are better at using their sense of smell or their sense of hearing to track down their meal.

When the cats were good and hungry we locked them up in the bathroom. Then Roger opened a can of tuna outside the bathroom door and walked it (holding it low at cat nose height) two floors down to the basement. When he was ready, Roger radioed Jack on the walkie talkie and told him to release the cats.

The cats burst out of the bathroom, clearly smelled the tuna, and proceeded to go around and around in confused circles.

On to step two. We put the cats back in the bathroom and let the tuna scent in the air clear. Roger put the tuna in a bowl and took it down to the basement. When he was ready, he radioed Jack to release the cats and he started clanging on the bowl of tuna with a spoon.

Fluffy, who was the runt of the litter but who now weighs more than Doublestuff, ran out of the bathroom like a shot and straight to Roger and the bowl of tuna two flights down.

Doublestuff hung out for a bit, then just sort of sauntered out of the bathroom. He did go directly to the tuna, but didn't seem to be in much of a hurry.

Conclusion: Our scientific method needs a little tightening up, but we did prove that our cats are very entertaining!