How cats find out
  about the environment



      Like most other living animals, cats have five senses.  
     Your cat may also has an additional mystery sense.  

      Smelling
    A cats' aptitude for identifying smells is stronger than that in humans.  They can
    determine if food and water are fresh, clean and appetizing.  They can also judge
    the cleanliness of the litter box through their smell.  They have an additional smell
    organ in the front upper part of their mouth.  To use it, they open their mouth
    slightly and curl their upper lip back.  I’ve watched cats smell the air on various
    levels, lifting their head up to catch the upper air aroma and lowering their head a
    little for the middle air and finally pushing their head toward their chest to smell the
    lower air.  They like to smell everything because that’s their primary way to learn
    about things.  They smell other cats, first none to nose and then nose to rear end.  
    They smell us, our clothes, our furniture, our shoes and even the tires of our car.   
    In addition, they leave their own aroma on us and on the objects they rub against.  
    They have scent glands on their head, around their mouth, on their tail and on the
    pads of their feet and can transfer their aroma using these glands.  When they rub
    on us, we can’t smell their scent, but they can and other cats can.  They can mark
    us as their “territory.”  
    Another way cats mark their scent is by spraying.  An unneutered male marks his
    territory by backing up to an object, moving his feet back and forth, lifting his tail
    and spraying urine and contents of their glands.  We certainly can smell that aroma
    and it’s not pleasant.  Even a neutered male may spray when they feel threatened
    by another male.         

    Sight
    Cats have large eyes for the size of their body.  They can see better than we can if
    the object is moving, but see poorer than we can if the object is stationary.  Their
    close vision is poor if an item is within six inches.  Then their smell helps them find
    and identify the nearby object.  They can see about as well in the nighttime as in
    the daytime, but not in complete darkness.   So, night hunting of moving prey is
    their specialty.  They can also estimate height and distance very well and can jump
    so as to exactly land on a distant object.  They love to jump to a high vantage
    point where they can watch everything and escape from dangers that are below
    them.   
    Cats have both eyes on the front of their head, unlike some other pets, including
    some dogs.  The also have a third eyelid.  
    The cat’s pupils adjust greatly to varying degrees of light.  They are narrow slits in
    bright light and large and round in the dark.  They reflect any light in the dark and
    thus look eerie to us.  A photoflash will make them reflect green or yellow as
    opposed to the red eye that we get in flash photos.
    If the cat's pupil is dark in the daylight, it's because they're afraid or excited.   
    One of my cats has odd eyes.  That means each eye is a different color.  When I
    take a flash photo, the two eyes each reflect a different color.      


























    Hearing
    Cats can hear a larger range of sounds than humans, especially those in the
    higher, more feminine range.  Each ear swivels independently so as to point to the
    source of the sound, even if the sound is coming from several feet away.  That
    helps them to know just where their prey is.  Cats don't like loud sounds, such as a
    vacuum cleaner, and will shy away if they hear you clap sharply.  
    Just as they learn what different sounds indicate in nature, they can also learn
    what different words mean, if they are motivated and paying attention.  That   
    doesn’t mean that they'll do whatever you tell them.  Get real!!!  

    Feeling
    Cats have whiskers around their mouth, over their eyes, on their chins and on the
    backs of their legs.  These help the cat to measure space and find out whether
    they can fit into a certain area in the dark.            

    Tasting
    Cats use the sense of smell more than the sense of taste.  They drink by using
    their tongue as a scoop.  The tongue has projections making it feel rough like
    sandpaper.  They use it to scrape meat off bones and also to groom their coat.

    A cat's senses diminish as they age.  See my page about caring for your cat when it
    has reached its ninth life.   

    The Mystery Sense

    Somehow, cats can communicate with other animals without using language as we
    do.  Somehow they can predict catastrophes such as earthquakes.  Somehow they
    can return to a previous home even if they were indoor cats and even if the former
    home is hundreds of miles away.  Somehow cats have their own GPS and can find
    their way without maps.  Somehow they can tell time, reminding us when it’s time
    to eat or go to bed.  Somehow they know when another person is bad news for
    us.  Somehow they intuit how we feel and comfort us.  
    Is this a mystery sixth sense?   
How Cats Find Out