> > Every morning whenever we crack open the front door, my cat Pixel alertly scuttles towards the door without fail.
> >
> > The doorway isn't really "open". There's a clear full-length glass pane over the outside main door. It gives a nice view of our lawn and our two maple and linden trees, and of the neighbours across the street.
> >
>
> Does Pixel accidentally slam into the glass door every morning, or does she just go to the window to look out?

Nope. No slamming, that is. She's a cat, not a dog, and the particular model of pet called 'cat' comes with a built-in "3D Active Response System". :-) (That's my jab at that weird active-resonse commercial which compares frog's feet to brake systems in cars.)

Anyway, cats rely heavily on their whiskers for balance, and they rely more on whiskers rather than eyes for running at high speeds through confined areas or poorly-lit spaces. It's an external spatial sense which we don't have. If you ever watch a cat crouch and hunker down before she jumps up onto a higher location, she bends her whiskers downwards before leaping. That way, her whiskers brush and feel out the target at the same point her front paws land. I imagine there are some cats stupid enough to smash headfirst into a glass door, but then again they're probably not using their senses fully.

Wolfspirit