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Odd cat behavior


Hankenhunter

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I was watching the blood moon/eclipse tonight with my wife through the window and noticed our male cat, Moosh, standing on a chair seat with his front paws on the top of the back rest. He was staring intently at the lunar eclipse through a window with his ears laid back. We were in the living room and he was in the dining room. He would jump down, pace around the chair lashing his tail, then jump back up to stare some more. This behavior went on for the whole cycle. He's still a bit agitated. Do cats have enough awareness to notice an eclipsing blood moon? Could his cat predator mind be seeing a rising hunting opportunity with the rapidly  increasing darkness?My 3 dogs didn't bat an eyelash over it, even when they went out during the eclipse. Google didn't  provide any answers. Any ideas? Thanks

Edited by Hankenhunter
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I have a great pyrenes who has really keen guardian instincts and she got more and more agitated as it progressed and finally howled when it went full on and finally quieted down as the moon came back. None of the other dogs reacted. Maybe it does have something to do with the darkness coming on so quickly after such brightness and the possibility of predators as you suggest, but, I don't know. I was out there meditating and watching it and then her, and found it curious. But, no insights to offer. Your hunting idea is as good as any to me, based on her reactions here and barking at the woods as if warning things off that she was out and on watch over her place.

But, one would suppose she is an old hand with clouds blocking the moon at times and such. It seems a stretch to say she sensed something different in the eclipse than simple cloud cover blocking a full moon. I really have no clue myself. Nice if someone else does :) 

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A few years ago, I'm reasonably confident that a wild red squirrel reacted to a lunar eclipse. From our vantage point, the eclipse occurred just before moonset, which is well past first light. So, whatever the squirrel was agitated about was not any great change in illumination level (which was uniformly increasing throughout the event anyway).

As to the plausibility of animal reaction? The squirrel's visual processing is awesome; I'd be more amazed to learn that the squirrel couldn't notice that some big ball in the sky was disappearing faster than it was sinking.

Dogs and cats, domesticated and around people taking an interest in the event? That's a sucker bet :) .

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