“Crosby, did you ever notice that we have eyes that are different shapes and colors? Yours are shaped like nuts, and mine are big gold circles!”

“Buddy, mine are called “almond eyes” – it sounds a lot better than saying they are shaped like nuts”. And yes, you do have nice big round eyes.”

“And I have the most royal of them all – big beautiful green eyes!”

“Oh Nicky, you’re always bragging about something – either that big beautiful silver and white fur coat you wear, that cute white mustache that looks like it got stuck in a bowl of ice cream…and now the eyes – jeesh – does it ever stop?”

“Buddy, leave Nicky alone. Remember that he was really scroungy looking when Mom and Dad brought him home last October – it’s taken him almost a year to get his big pretty fur coat back.”

“Mom, please tell us about cat eyes…I remember that fairy tale you used to tell us, Little Red Riding Hood, and the scary big bad wolf! It went like this:

“Oh Granny, what big eyes you have,” said Little Red Riding Hood. “All the better to see you with,” replied the wolf. “Oh Granny, what big teeth you have,” gasped Little Red Riding Hood. “All the better to eat you with!” replied the wolf.

“Yes, Buddy, I remember that bedtime story I used to tell you guys until you got nightmares from it! Let me tell you a little about cat eyes. You guys rely on all 5 senses, just like humans do – vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch to tell you all about the world you live in. These senses send information to your brain for interpretation. This has been going on for over millions of years when you lived only in the wild and had to protect yourselves and feed yourselves. Because you were night hunters, you had superior night vision and extraordinary senses of hearing and smell. Your eyes see in the dark; your ears can detect high-pitched noises; you have a powerful sense of smell and whiskers that allow you to sense your way through things in pitch darkness.”

“A cat’s eye is a hollow ball filled with clear jelly that lets light pass through. Your eyes work the best at night – that’s when mice are the most active and you first learned to get food by trapping mice at night. In dim light, you see really well, but it’s in black & white – not color. You can see blues and yellows, but reds and greens probably appear as grays. In daylight, your pupils shrink to vertical slits to protect your eyes from glare.”

“Like this, Mom?”

“Mom, I think we should all wear sunglasses like these.”

“Yes, Buddy, exactly like that!” And look how big your pupils are at night, to be able to let in more light so you can see better in the dark.”

“Cat vision is much less sharp than humans. They are generally farsighted and can’t see clearly within about 1 foot in front of their eyes. But they can detect movement, which protects them from predators and helps them catch mice. Cat eyes face forward and total field of vision is about 200 degrees – more than from side to side which is 180 degrees. Their forward vision from both eyes overlaps, giving them binocular vision that allows them to see in depth and to judge distances accurately, which is so important for successful hunting and jumping.

In the dark, a cat’s pupil expands to an area three times larger than a human’s dilated pupil, allowing the tiniest glimmer of light to enter the eye. Night vision is further enhanced by a reflective layer behind the retina, increasing the eye’s sensitivity and ability to see in the dark by up to 40 percent. The eyes appear as a bright golden or green disk when a source of light strikes a cat’s eyes at night. It kind of looks like space alien’s eyes!

“Mom, I’ve made up a poem about night vision – do you want to hear it?”

“Sure, Buddy. Let’s hear your poem.”

“My vision was cloudy, but now it is clear, the dark of night has brought distant things near.

I see mice and bunnies and hunt until dawn, when my eyes get sleepy and I start to yawn.

I say ‘goodbye, Mrs. Bunny, goodbye Mr. Mouse, it’s time for me to go back into my house.’

Mom has breakfast waiting, good things to eat. Then I’ll make some biscuits and go right to sleep.

What a difference daylight makes, as my eyes get narrow, I feel like a groundhog, ready to burrow.

See y’all tomorrow (that’s ‘Southern Speak’), and Mr. Mouse, be quiet, so we don’t hear you squeek.

The birds are chirping, saying ‘Good morning to all’, as I curl up on my bed in a cute little ball.

Daytime is beautiful, but nighttime is too, if it weren’t for my night vision eyeballs, I would have missed the view!

Buddy Boy (who is always an indoor cat only)