Also, in this house, there was a physicist, who was doing a very difficult thought experiment.

"A cat is shut in a box, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of an hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if decay takes place, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of cyanide. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts."
*

"Which, while logical, is clearly nonsense. It is therefore necessary to turn the thought experiment into an empirically verifiable and measurable laboratory experiment."

The physicist synchronised his watch, put the lid on the box and went off to sit in the garden for an hour with a cup of tea and the morning paper.

Now, as much as a cat loves sleeping in a box, sleeping in a box with a lid on is another matter altogether. Closed box means cat-doctor, and cat-doctor means needles and things shoved up your bum.