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My cat also totally ignores mirrors, screens, etc. And she completely flips out when she sees another cat through the window, fifty feet away. I'm pretty conf
by aetherson 12y ago
My cat also totally ignores mirrors, screens, etc. And she completely flips out when she sees another cat through the window, fifty feet away.
I'm pretty confused by this. I don't think that her sense of smell or hearing is so acute that she can smell or hear the other cat through glass from so far away. She doesn't have binocular vision at that distance, I would assume. Parallax? How does she determine that that's a real cat while cats in mirrors and screens aren't?
- mblakele 12y agoCats have much better long-range vision than short-range. Long range they are probably better than you think. Short of about a foot they don't really focus at all, and rely on their whiskers. Like most predators they key in on movement. Taken together I think these features explain the behavior you've seen.
- ecdavis 12y agoAgain, I can only offer anecdotes. My cat will react to unusual movement outside a nearby window even when he's curled up with his eyes closed. I remember one instance in particular where I was playing music fairly loudly. He had his eyes closed and was lying down facing away from the window when a dog walked past. His ears perked up and he immediately got up and looked around. I can only assume it was the sound that tipped him off. It's not necessarily that their hearing/smell/vision is so much better than ours, but rather that it's more specifically evolved for their role as predators (as another poster pointed out).