Charlie's Animal Research Project -- status update

[Charlie Wilkes]

On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 09:34:30 +1000, Richard Vickery
<Richard.Vickery at unsw.edu.au> wrote:

>Charlie Wilkes wrote:
>> On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 14:42:01 GMT, "The Puppy Wizard"
>> <ThePuppyWizard at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>HOWEDY Richard,
>>>
>>>Those are good suggestions, but will be impossible
>>>to implement in the same, and perhaps even adjacent
>>>buildings because DDR permeates the environment
>>>for at least five hundred feet arHOWEND.
>>>
>>>The Puppy Wizard. <} ; ~  )   >
>>>
>> Good point.  Will successive blind testing work, i.e., I monitor and
>> analyze results without knowing which are control?
>
>Yes - it just means you can only study new arrivals, not other cats 
>that might have been exposed (you won't know if the box was on). 
>This is not a big problem if new cats arrive regularly.  If you have 
>to wait a month between tests it would really slow down the project.
>
>Best wishes
>Richard Vickery

I've got plenty of time, although my torpor is periodically
interrupted by consulting assignments for my client.  Such is my fate
for the next two weeks, so I will have to postpone my experiment at
least that long.

BUT -- your response is good news, because the caged, short-term
residents are the ones I want to study anyway.  I went to the shelter
this afternoon and the manager put me to work pulling weeds in the hot
sun amongst the "ferals," a population of perhaps 40 long-term
residents deemed unsuitable for adoption.  They have a big, fenced
yard with netting over the top, and their stress levels are about like
those of sun-bathers on a beach.  They just aren't the right subjects.

It will probably be a month or more before I really get this project
under way, because I want to get to know the people at the shelter and
earn some credibility before I pursue my own agenda on their turf.
Meanwhile I will plan my approach, and your guidance has been very
helpful indeed.  I imagine I should do a series of blind tests with
random controls to minimize the "noise" of different cat
personalities. 

 Whatever I do, I'll put detailed results on the Internet for all to
see.  Jerry Howe is selling this machine.  He has a controversial
personality that warps most discussion about him and his product.  I
want to get past that bullshit.

Charlie