Got Two Cats? Your Input is Needed
Over the last two decades, I have been blessed to share my life with some pretty extraordinary cats.
I've experienced the varied dynamics of being a single-cat household to having three cats are scurrying around at the same time.
Most of the time two has been the magic number.
This makes me a prime subject for a new academic experiment.
Gizmodo is reporting that scientists at the University of California, Davis and The University of British Columbia are looking for people living in the U.S. or Canada, over the age of 18, who are the primary owner of two adult cats.
Not one or three, just two.
They're looking at this specific group to help them identify and interpret cat-to-cat interactions all from watching a series of cat videos.
Volunteers will rate the behaviors showcased in ten different videos on a scale from 'extremely positive to extremely negative'. Participants will then be asked to rate how closely their own cats mirror the behaviors seen in the videos.
The researchers will take that data and compare it to responses they get from trained cat behaviorists with PhDs to see if cat owners are having difficulty deciphering their pet's body language.
There is no financial compensation being offered for participating in the study, but the researchers say they hope cat owners will hopefully gain a better understanding of their pets in the process.
Researchers are planning on publishing the results of their study sometime in early 2022.