31st March 2005, 12:57 AM
GR, you didn't read the part just before that, the part where I said what conditions result in no slits. Cat's eyes have to be contracted in order to be slits. When fully dialated, they aren't slits at all. Basically the muscles on the iris are only there for part of it. The top and bottom stay still while the sides are pulled together, so if those muscles are relaxed, you get irises that look just like ours in the dark. Since cats enjoy the dark, then it's safe to say their eyes aren't slits for a pretty decent amount of time. Sure that's what cats are known for, but it's only in high light conditions that you see it, like when they are lying around in a beam of sunlight.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)