Cats have powerful and acute vision, but they do have a small blind spot. They cannot see objects well that are directly in front of them, or that are right under their nose or chins.

A cat’s eyes are designed to detect minute movements. Although they are not technically nocturnal, but rather crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk), cats do see extremely well in near complete darkness — about six to 10 times better than we do.

During the day, cats tend to have somewhat blurry vision. They can see colors, mainly purple, blue, and green, but not really the reddish shades. The point in a cat’s visual survival and efficiency is not so much color as motion.

Felines are small, highly evolved predators who hunt even smaller prey, mainly mice and similar vermin. A cat can zero in on even the slightest movement at a considerable distance. If you’ve ever caught your cat staring at “nothing” on the ceiling or in the corner, you’re wrong. There’s probably a miniscule insect there that you couldn’t see without a magnifying glass.

But mice rarely wander directly under a cat’s nose. At that close range, a cat will rely much more directly on its nose than on its vision. The good news? Their sense of smell is as good or better than their vision, so one way or another, your cat doesn’t miss much.