Eye see.

Cats’ eyes are beautiful: big round and deep with fascinating pupils that go from round to slit. I always wondered how cats see the world and did some reading up on it. What follows is just a brief summary of what I learned, but it gives a fair idea of how cats’ eyes work.

Most people know that cats are nocturnal hunters. Cats don’t just rely on their eyes to hunt. They have touch-sensitive whiskers, their smell is 14 times better than a human’s and they can hear sounds 1.6 octaves higher than a human. All this helps them to hunt at night. They are, however, active during the day as well. That’s why their eyes have evolved in such a way that they can see very well in the dark and fairly well in daylight.

A cat’s field of view is about 200 degrees, which is only a bit larger than that of a human (180 degrees). Both the pupil and the lens are bigger than the pupil and lens in the human eye, letting in more light. Their pupils contract from round to slit, which is a faster process than contracting from big round to small round as with humans. There is a trade-off for these advantages.  When the pupil is in slit mode, (in bright light) a cat can’t focus as well as when it is round (dim light) and although the cat’s lens is much bigger than a human’s lens, it can’t change size like a human’s lens. Therefore a cat’s depth of field is not as good as ours. We can focus on objects far away and close by. A cat can’t focus on objects close by. You can compare it to the healthy eyes of an older human. Human eyes loose their flexibility with age and you end up needing reading glasses for objects close by.

The lining of the back of the eye is called the retina. It is where the image focuses and where the rods and cones are situated. The rods are highly light-sensitive but not sensitive to colour. They help us see in dim light conditions. The cones are the ones that are colour-sensitive and also deal with detail detection in daylight conditions.

The human eye has an area on the retina called the fovea. This area is very high in cones, and has virtually no rods. That’s why humans have very good colour vision and can also detect a lot of finer detail in good light (try seeing how much detail and colour you can detect in a dark room with only some moonlight coming in through the window).

The retina in a cat’s eye contains more rods than cones and doesn’t have an area with only cones. That’s why cats can see very well in darker conditions, six times better than humans, but don’t see as much detail and colour in daylight conditions. As colour is the reflection of light off surfaces, you can’t really see colour in the dark anyway. Therefore, A nocturnal hunter like a cat doesn’t really need the ability to see colour that well. Instead of a fovea, cats have an area behind the retina called the tapetum. This area contains reflective cells that reflect the light back to the rods and cones, so the slightest bit of light in the dark is put to good use. That’s why cats’ eyes light up in the headlights at night: the cells on the tapetum work as mirrors.

Cats can give a really intense stare because, unlike humans, cats don’t blink to moisten their eyes. Cats do blink slowly as a form of communication. Some people call it cat kisses. Slow blinking makes cats feel at ease and is a show of affection. Try it out some time. If the cat slow blinks back at you, it means that you are communicating successfully, in cat language, with your cat.

Have you ever looked at a sleepy cat that has just opened the eyes slightly and seen a whitish membrane partly over the eyes? Well, you were looking at their third eyelid, called the nictitating membrane. This is a translucent membrane that moves from the side. It protects the eye and keeps it moist while maintaining visibility. This membrane is sometimes slightly visible when a cat is sleepy and content. It is also visible when a cat is sick. If the membrane stays in view while the cat is awake, you should contact your vet and get it checked out.

Some people still believe that cats are completely colour-blind. This is not true. Cats can see colours, but not all colours. They can distinguish between blues and greens but not between shades of red.

So to recap: a bigger lens and pupil, combined with a higher density in rods and the reflective cells on the tapetum, allow a cat to see 6 times better in the dark than humans. Cats’ eyes are highly light sensitive but, as a trade-off, lack the ability to detect a lot of detail and colour sensitivity in daylight. A cat can see certain colours (greens and blues) and is therefore only partly colour-blind. A cat can’t focus on objects close by because of non-flexible lenses. Cats don’t blink to keep their eyes moist. They slow blink to communicate. They have a third eyelid called the nictitating membrane that protects their eyes and keeps it moist.

Right, I will include a few pictures and then I’m done. I hope you liked this little write-up. :)

Fat Cat

Last week I was back home in the Netherlands for a short week of mainly family visits.

I stayed with my niece and her family. They live on a nice, fairly quiet street, with a lot of cat owners. Every now and then I would meet one of these felines, walking from or back to their house. What struck me was the number of obese cats, not just in their street, but also in other streets. These are cats that are allowed to go out, so at least they’re not stuck inside all day. So how do these cats get so fat? Overeating? Wrong food? Or is it just a suburban cat thing? But that doesn’t seem right as I also saw normal, healthy looking cats. I would love to chat with their humans to find out. I’m just curious. I do know that some people have the notion that it is “gezellig” – a Dutch word that is hard to describe, but cosy comes close – to have a fat cat lying in the windowsill. Personally I think that a combination of wrong food (mostly dry food with a lot of fillers) and a constant supply of it could be the reason for these cats getting so fat. There’s no need for a constant supply of food. Feed at regular times a few times a day. If you can’t be there yourself, get a timed pet feeder. You can get them for up to 5 feeds. Weigh the food so they don’t get more than they need for their body weight (So you need to know the weight of your cat to start.)

Our two started looking for food in between mealtimes, but they’re outside a lot and it is getting colder. They’ve filled out but they are still lean, mean, killing machines. They are so active, always chasing flies, leaves, toys, each other and catching mice, rats and shrews. Somebody commented on the fact that we don’t let the two out at night. He said: “that’s the time they want to hunt”. He’s absolutely right but that’s the compromise in our house: inside at night. We don’t have a cat door and don’t want to leave the window open at night for them to go in and out and maybe bring prey back with them. Other cats could come in and go for their food as well. Then there are also foxes around and I don’t want them to get into a scrap with a fox. From about 6.30 am until 6 pm they normally can come and go as they please. They then go for naps and get some playtime in between as well. No constant supply of dry food. Dry food (grain free) is given as a snack every now and then and for the rest they get their regular meals of wet food. That and plenty of exercise will keep them in good shape.

I really feel for those obese cats. It’s not nice for them to have to carry all that weight around and it could cause all sorts of health problems in the long run. Cat owners: wake up. Don’t let your cats get fat. If you really care for your pets, you watch their weight. It can also save you a lot of money on vet bills.

 Picture through Google image search.

Thanks to the original uploader.

Talk about cats: ah....we love 'em.

Some guy on Newstalk, an Irish radio station, said that he left Facebook because he couldn’t deal with all the cat pictures and stories anymore. The feckin’ eejit. First of all you have a certain amount of control over what you see on Facebook. You don’t have to look at every update from every friend if you don’t want to. You also have control over what shows up on your timeline. Anyway: good riddance. I don’t want him as a friend anyway.

My better half and myself talk about our cats on Facebook too. See it as revenge for all the baby stories we’ve had to listen to.

No, we don’t have kids. We don’t want them. We have cats. Don’t misunderstand me: I like kids. I just don’t need any myself to live a full and happy life. I have freaked out a few young mothers by stating that I love babies but that I couldn’t eat a whole one. I just got fed up with all the baby talk. So I do understand that people get fed up with cat talk as well.

The kitty pictures on Facebook? Cute, but I don’t really look at them that much. I enjoy my own cats, and trust me: never a dull moment.

They’re also happy with what we give them. They don’t demand designer stuff. They are just as content with a cardboard box as they are with a specialised cat item. They don’t turn into stroppy teenagers who want to play loud music that I don’t like. In fact: they don’t even like loud music.

They even carry their weight in the sense that they bring in food for us.

Much appreciated. (When they look away we quickly get rid of the dead bodies of mice, shrews and rats. We don’t want to look ungrateful or anything but rodents are not really our favourite type of grub).

The only thing I don’t really like about my cats is their farts. Ok: Charlie farts, Tina breaks wind, ‘cause she’s a lady. But she certainly doesn’t smell like a lady when she does. Bloody Hell!! The two of them could be used to scare that Assad character out of Syria and the Taliban into becoming peace-loving Buddhists: chemical warfare and then some. I nearly passed out one time when Charlie……Ah, there I go again: talking lovingly about my cats. That’s why I started this blog, so I wouldn’t annoy too many people on Facebook. I’m nice that way. Although I do share the updates on Facebook, just so people who do like the cat stories know that there’s a new one out and maybe giving the finger just a teeny-weeny bit to all the cat haters on Facebook……..Up yours!

Homer's odyssey by Gwen Cooper.

It was sitting on my virtual bookshelf for a long time but I finally got around to read Homer’s odyssey by Gwen Cooper.

I’m not really a person for real life stories. I read the odd biography and some historical accounts, but most of the time I read fiction. Every now and then I make an exception and this time I’m glad I did.

Homer’s Odyssey is the story of how a blind cat named Homer ends up in the author’s household and how they get on after that. The author has already two cats and is trying to get her life together. Adopting a blind kitten while she already had enough on her plate didn’t seem like a smart decision.

With this book you actually get two stories in one.

It’s as much a book about the author as about her cats. Because you start to identify with the author, who is a likeable person in my opinion, it makes it easier to get stuck into the story. The book reads like fiction and is well written. It has a nice flow to it, which makes it a very pleasant read.

The author tells about her experiences with Homer, how her other cats react to this cat that doesn’t always behave like cats normally do and how other people react to Homer.

The book is very moving in places; it has funny moments and is written in a way that you almost feel you’re there with her and taking part in her life.

Homer’s odyssey shows that you shouldn’t always judge a book by its cover. When cats are blind, it doesn’t mean they can’t lead a full and happy life. When you look at Homer through human eyes you could say that Homer’s will to live and his courage are inspiring. At the same time the author realises that you can’t project like that and that Homer is just a normal cat doing normal cat stuff and doesn’t even realise that he is missing one of his senses.

Even so, Homer is an example to her and his determination helps her to change her life around. I don’t know if everything she writes is a true account of how things went but the book breathes sincerity. The author wants to share parts of her life and that of her extended feline family to give out a message of courage and hope.

Even when things are not always going the way you want them to go, keep your spirits up and, every now and then, be impulsive. Sometimes you just have to take a plunge without being able to see what lies ahead.

I really enjoyed reading Homer’s Odyssey and can recommend it to everyone with an interest in a good, uplifting story. You don’t have to be a cat person to enjoy this book.