Your Cat's Eyes Can See in the Dark, and Sideways, Too

A cat's eyes are blue at birth. A cat's eyes then may turn into different colors through heredity and growth, such as an attractive greenish blue (similar to mine, lol). Even folks who don't like cats or pets (such as me) still will find themselves fascinated by a cat's eyes. In fact, the folksinger and humorist Loudon Wainwright III penned a 1970s tune called "Me and My Friend the Cat," in which he gets drunk in the middle of the night and goes into his back yard and chats with a cat on a fence post, who does nothing but stare back with creepy cat's eyes.

If your cat is really honked off at you for some reason, your angry cat's eyes' pupils will get narrow. If your cat is frightened, in contrast, your cat's eyes' pupils will get really big. This also is true if your cat is excited, perhaps at the sight of a blue jay or a cardinal outside of the front picture window. If your cat's eyes seem a little darker than usual, this means your cat is feeling happy and content and groovy, which means you probably just fed your cat some Fancy Feast, or one of those brands of cat food that cost more than people food.

When a cat doesn't feel good, a cat's eyes are dull and glazed. There's nothing unusual in this regard. However, a cat has a so-called third eyelid, an inner eyelid known to veterinarians and cat aficionados as the nictating membrane. The third eyelid is intended to protect a cat's eyes from dryness and/or damage.

We may think a mosquito's field of vision is incredible, but a cat's eyes aren't far behind. The field of vision for a cat's eyes is 186 degrees, which means cats can see slightly beyond sideways. This is much better than we humans can see, of course. This also explains why we can't sneak up on a cat, but a cat can sneak up on us! Cats also can hear better than we can hear, and cats can smell better than we can smell. Just about our only advantage, is that we can see our noses, while cats cannot.

The most amazing aspect of your cat's eyes, however, is that your cat can see in the dark. This doesn't mean your cat can see in total darkness, but a cat's eyes require only one-sixth the illumination that is required by humans. Your vet will explain that in a cat's eyes, the muscles in the irises that surround the pupils allow the cat's eyes' slits to become really narrow in bright light, and really wide in dim light. Your cat's eyes also have a special layer behind the retina, known as the tapetum, that makes fantastic use of even a small amount of light.

This is why your cat's eyes seem to glow in the dark, and this is one more reason why this author doesn't own a cat.

SOURCES

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Me_And_My_Friend_The_Cat/22411673

http://cats.about.com/cs/eyesvision/a/cats_eyes.htm

http://www.aboutcatsonline.com/articles/cateyes.html

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/ClientED/cat_eyes.aspx