Cat Sanctuary Beauties

Cat Sanctuary Beauties
Originally uploaded by fofurasfelinas

This is another one of Giane Portal's (fofurasfelinas - Flickr name) great photos. This is just a symphony in blue. The cat is a random bred cat that has found a great home in a sanctuary that can shelter a maximum of 300 cats and this is not a rehoming shelter. The cats live here in a large colony.

There are some brightly coloured walls in the sanctuary which allows Giane to get some nice contrasty colours as backgrounds for the cats.

This cat has blue eyes as well, hence the symphony in blue! His or her name is Barbarus - I think that is a boys name and he looks more like a male cat than a female although it is not always clear. This is a white cat and the gene that produces the white coat also takes the colour from the eyes which leaves them blue.

I have blue eyes and they have less pigment in the iris, which allows more light through and so in bright light my eyes hurt. I have to squint to protect them or wear dark glasses.

Cats as we know have a very efficient method of keeping light out of their eyes. The iris forms a slit rather than a circle when it " stops down" (closes). This allows for the eyelid to further block out light by riding down the eye and covering part of the slit.

This means a cat can see is very dark conditions (cats have a reflective layer behind the retina) and very light conditions without damaging the eye.

It is believed that cats can see colour but not as well as humans. They can though as stated see much better in the dark. The laser eyes pictures that we see of cats in the dark taken with flash light is of the light reflecting of the reflective layer behind the retina and back out of the eye.