Cats and Mirrors?

Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.

On Jun 14, 1:25*pm, dgk wrote:

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?



Both the Fabulous Furballs freaked when they first saw themselves in a
mirrow and started fluffing and hissing but now they don't even bother
with them. Isis (RB) used to look at her reflection when she was
washing presumably to make sure she hadn't missed a bit!

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

On 14.6.2011 15:25, dgk wrote:
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.

I've only ever had one cat who reacted to a mirror, and that was Nikki.
She was born in a stables (no mirrors!) and came directly home with me
to my flat where I didn't have any mirrors that the cats could have
seen. Later we moved to another flat where there was a big mirror in the
hallway. The first time she walked past it, she caught a glimpse of
herself, stopped dead in her tracks, poofed up and started jumping
sideways at the mirror. She hissed at her image. She hissed again. Then
she just walked away. I've always wondered if she realised it was her
own image, because Nikki usually didn't give up so easily when she met a
stranger. She was a very smart cat, but I wonder if she can have been
that smart.

Less than a year later, I moved to yet another flat with a mirror on one
of the closet doors in the hallway. Neither Nikki nor Frank reacted to
their mirror images in any way.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

dgk wrote:
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.



Princess RB16 Siamese) was very curious the first time she encountered a
mirror in my house. She sniffed, looked behind the door, then settled
down to communicate (mentally?) with the other cat. I had mirrored
closet doors in the dining room and she would often go there to sit and
visit with the other cat. She also discovered the cat in the mirror
on the dresser in my bedroom. She would often jump up and visit that
cat also.

TuTu discovered the mirrors early on and investigated them fully and
decided they were a waste of time. MLB

"dgk" wrote in message ...

Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.

-------

Mirrors, no. In fact none of the cats I've had in my lifetime have ever
been bothered with the mirror. But... if Oscar is on my desk (and he is a
lot of the time), go to You Tube and type in 'cats meowing'. Then I double
click it to enlarge it. Oscar flips out, and I mean FLIPS OUT every time.
He yowls his Siamese yowl, hisses, spits and then hauls ass out of the room.
If I am sitting here eating and he won't take no for an answer, I quickly
"bring in" the You Tube cat. Works every time!!! (And at Oscar's
expense... it is really funny)!!!


·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
Laurie
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸ ·.·

*~*LiveLoveLaugh*~*

All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
~Abraham Lincoln

dgk wrote:
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.

Not mirror images, but sound, definitely! I was watching a PBS program
about feral cats, with one of mine seated on the couch beside me. I've
no idea what the cat in the program had said, but I was just in time to
grab mine as he bushed up his tail, growled and leaped to attack the TV
screen!

Also, there are a series of Christmas recordings by the "Jingle Cats".
(A sound engineer followed his clowder around the house with a
microphone, then rearranged the resulting meows into recognizable
versions of familiar Christmas carols.) My guys didn't pay much
attention, but a friend told me hers were all over the stereo speakers,
trying to find those cats!

hopitus wrote:
On Jun 14, 6:25 am, dgk wrote:
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.

As we all know.....cats are smarter than dogs. Dogs do react to mriror
images.
Cats don't, because they know this: if ya can't *smell it*...it ain't
there, no
matter what it looks like.

I'm reminded of a book - "The Ugly Dachshund" - about a Great Dane
belonging to a family who raised dachshunds, and was constantly having
his heart broken because he was not allowed on laps, like his
companions. (Every once in a while he'd catch a glimpse of a God-like
super-dog, not realizing it was himself he was seeing in a mirror.)

MLB wrote:
dgk wrote:
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.



Princess RB16 Siamese) was very curious the first time she encountered a
mirror in my house. She sniffed, looked behind the door, then settled
down to communicate (mentally?) with the other cat. I had mirrored
closet doors in the dining room and she would often go there to sit and
visit with the other cat. She also discovered the cat in the mirror
on the dresser in my bedroom. She would often jump up and visit that
cat also.

TuTu discovered the mirrors early on and investigated them fully and
decided they were a waste of time. MLB

The event that convinced me cats are telepathic was the time I found my
(pregnant) female cat relaxing a circle of other cats (including the one
from next-door, who had recently had a litter. It seemed so clearly a
gathering of neighborhood matrons offering advice to a young bride and
mother-to-be, that I figured that was exactly what it had to be!

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in message
...


dgk wrote:
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.

Not mirror images, but sound, definitely! I was watching a PBS program
about feral cats, with one of mine seated on the couch beside me. I've no
idea what the cat in the program had said, but I was just in time to grab
mine as he bushed up his tail, growled and leaped to attack the TV screen!

Also, there are a series of Christmas recordings by the "Jingle Cats". (A
sound engineer followed his clowder around the house with a microphone,
then rearranged the resulting meows into recognizable versions of familiar
Christmas carols.) My guys didn't pay much attention, but a friend told
me hers were all over the stereo speakers, trying to find those cats!

My two don't pay any attention to cat noises from the computer or the TV.
I've seen the commercial somebody posted here several times, and the cats
ignore the meowing. However, a few years ago, Skeeter (RB) was on my lap,
facing me, when I was watching a nature program. A wolf howled on the
program, and she immediately sat up, turned around, and kept her eyes glued
to the TV screen until I turned it off.

Joy

The only cat I've had who ever paid attention to mirrors was Sammy. She
would sit on her perch in front of my stand-up mirror, or jump onto my
vanity to look into the bathroom mirror. Oddly, she didn't quite look at
herself much, but watched my reflection and other things in there. This is
only a supposition, of course, but it seemed like she thought she was
looking into an alternate reality (kind of creepy, really). The only mirror
she ever "reacted to" was the one on the back of my bedroom door when it was
(rarely) closed. That she would paw at a if digging her way in, but that
might have been an attempt to get out (she also did this on the french doors
of my bedroom onto the deck).

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net


"dgk" wrote in message
...
Christina had a post about Boyfriend seeing himself in the mirror and
it was pretty funny. But my cats don't seem to react at all to
themselves or the other cats in the mirror. Seeing me in the mirror
also doesn't seem to elicit a response.

So now I'm curious; how many folks have had incidents where cats are
responding to an image?

This seems to offer a good explanation:

http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/do-cat...d-mirrors/2599

I guess it depends on whether they've learned what a mirror is. It
certainly must be puzzling the first time though.