Wondering What Our Pets Actually See When They Look at Us

Juniper was doing something this morning as I brushed my teeth. Something different than usual. Usually she watches me from the bathroom doorway to beg me for food or plot her next napping spot. But today she just watched, like a statue, with detective style concentration. As I diagonal stepped towards the towel rack, her eerie green eyes tracked me. I looked straight at her and still, she remained unblinking and uninterested.

What on earth was she determining? What was so fascinating about me?

I can name a bunch of cat features. A white patch on her chest shaped like a lopsided heart, the twitchy whiskers of a dreaming feline, and so on. I see a timid creature who once hid for days underneath my bed, but is now a cat who sprawls on my laptop and demands attention.

What is she looking at when she gazes at me? Standing still on the threshold, the cat remained fixed on me.

I’d given animals the benefit of the doubt thinking they had individual personalities like us. As if they could appreciate a human face like we appreciate the look of our friends. I figured Copper saw me, and recognized me by the shape of my nose and eyes.

Then I started reading about how animals actually see the world and it changed everything I thought about animals.

Unlike people, dogs are never going to spend 5 minutes staring at your face to try and figure out who you are. They simply do not care that much. Instead, they are far more concerned with how you smell (which is literally how they recognize you), how you sound, and how you walk. I bet Copper doesn’t know what my face looks like, but if I walk through 3 rooms he can tell it is me just by my movement.

When it comes to seeing, cats also have good and bad things. I bet Juniper can see me perfectly, but she definitely doesn’t see me how I see me in the mirror. She cannot see as much detail as I can and in fact she sees less detail and more muted colors (for most things). She sees motion, my posture, my head.

So if she is staring at me then there is more than likely a reason for it. She is definitely not staring at my tired eyes or the toothpaste on my chin. She is trying to read what I am feeling. If I feel preoccupied and I mean forget to refill her water bowl preoccupied, or if I’m the type of preoccupied that means I’m going to sit down soon and she can take my lap.

I spend a lot of time worrying about how I appear to others and what preconceptions people might have about me. But I realize that Copper and Juniper could not care less. They literally do not care if you are in your pajamas at noon and they will judge you based on your movements and your hands. If your hands smell like chicken they will judge you.

It is indeed a freeing sensation. To be seen but not in the beholding judgment of the world. Not in the judgment of your clothes or your social class or what you did for a living. But rather seen. Understood. Appreciated even.

I started to try to think how other people see me from their perspective. Not my face, but the way I hold my body. The way I stop to think when I am about to leave through a door. The way I ease myself when I am sitting on the couch after a long day. The jingling of my keys when I walk in the hallway.

Eventually, Juniper got bored of looking at me and started licking her paw in a sun patch. I don’t know what she thought about me, if anything. Maybe she was just passing the time. Maybe she was seeing if I was still the same person I was the day before.

I think I was and I hope I was.

I hope that is enough.