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From: plw@mgwess.UUCP (Pete Wilson)
Newsgroups: net.pets
Subject: Re: The six senses of a cat
Message-ID: <14951@mgwess.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Sep-85 01:02:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: mgwess.14951
Posted: Sun Sep 29 01:02:59 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Sep-85 01:17:19 EDT
References: <160@cadsys.UUCP>
Reply-To: plw@mgwess.UUCP (Wilson,Pete,PL)
Organization: AT&T Information Systems - Montgomery Illinois
Lines: 71
Summary: 

In article <160@cadsys.UUCP> ekwok@cadsys.UUCP (Edward C. Kwok) writes:
>
>I am very interested in how other mammals' perception of the world
>differ from ours. In particular, that of the cat, since I have one whose
>behavior never ceases to amaze me. I read in net.bizarre that cats are
>deaf and partly blind - in the sense that they cannot hear and that they
>cannot see stationary things.  Net.bizarre posters are not the most
>reliable source of scientific authority, as we all know. I am posting
>in net.pets to ask for more credible opinions. 
>
>P.S. This may sound utterly stupid - but, does any one knows if cats
>communicate, besides body-language, among themselves? 
>-- 
>So there ...

	These observations are based on a five year study of 5 cats in
whose house I reside.
	You may also have heard that cats can see a lot better in the
dark than humans. Actually, they can see only marginally better in the
dark. They depend more on an acute sense of hearing. It may be true
that cats' eyes adapt faster than ours, though. A cat can hear another
cat walking on carpet at least two rooms away. With two radios and a TV
going, my cats can tell if a car pulling in the driveway belongs here
(i.e., my or my wife's car) or if it belongs to a stranger, while they
are napping(!) in the back of the house (inside, windows closed). The
way I can tell this is that if I am home and my wife pulls in the drive-
way, they run downstairs to the front door. If I'm home alone and a
stranger (to them) pulls in the front, they hide under the bed. They
do this even before I know anybody has arrived!
	I also have heard that cats can't see stationary objects. The
theory went something like this: The human eye is constantly rotating
in very small circles in order to see 'edges' of objects. The brain
'fills in' the middle portion of the object based on what is seen at
the edges.  A possible way to verify this is to stare at a solid color
(smooth)wall from a short distance away. Most people experience some
degree of vertigo. Or look at a solid color circle on a flat surface of
another color. After a short time, the circle will 'disappear'. A cat's
eyes don't rotate, they are stationary. The conclusion was that the
effect would be the same as that of the second experiment. At least
that's the way I heard it. I tend to disagree with the conclusion. A
cat will stare at an object that appeared to move, for quite awhile. If
this object 'disappeared' as in the experiment, then the cat would lose
interest rather quickly. A supporting piece of evidence for the conclusion
is that when a cat is awake, their head and eyes are in almost constant
motion, either from walking around or just gaping at the scenery. The
result being that very little in the cat's range of vision is stationary
with respect to the cat.
	As to whether or not cats communicate with each other, I'm not
sure. Only one of my cats will make vocal sounds at the others. The
rest will hiss and growl, but not meow at their peers. I would almost
swear that they are telepathic, though, both with each other and with
humans. The anecdotal evidence being the 'herd' response to something
that scares one of them causing the rest to panic even though they are
in different parts of the house.
	Cats' sense of smell, I think, is just different that humans' -
not necessarily better. My range for the smell of cat shit is about 2
blocks. My cats', however, is about 1/4 inch. I mean, they have to
practically put their noses in that stuff in order to verify that that's
what it is (GAG!!)! On the other hand, I think that just about all cats
smell the same (if they're clean!). The cats can tell if one of them
has even been petted by a non-household person (hiss, spit, growl).
	Have I covered just about everything you wanted to know about
cats and couldn't care less about?


	Pete Wilson
	AT&T IS CGBS
	Montgomery Works
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