how do your pets react to seeing themselves in the mirror?

[charlie and algernon]

Its weird, I've put Esther in front of the bathroom mirror many times and she's never given the slightest hint of recognizing either herself or thinking its another cat. Then a full length mirror was moved into my apartment for storage this weekend and when I put Esther in front of it, she freaked out, ran out of the room, peaked back in, saw the "other cat" again, and hid under the bed for awhile, lol. She went back in a second time and still got freaked out, so I had to turn the mirror around so it now faces the wall.

Anyone else's pet(s) get freaked out by seeing their reflection?

[Graybeard]

1. My Pepper looked *behind* the mirror for that cat.

Pepper was the smartest cat ever and she was convinced that the reflection was another cat looking out from behind the mirror. Even a hand mirror put on the floor had to be turned over.

[charlie and algernon]

2. esther will do that if I play cat sounds on my computer

She'll look under and behind the laptop for the cat making the sounds, even pawing at the speakers to get inside, lol.

[Coventina]

3. The stray dog we adopted was very puzzled by mirrors for a long time.

He would run up to his reflection and sniff it all over. Then stare, then sniff. Then he would try to get behind the mirror to figure out where the other dog was. Several months later, he seems to have finally figured out that there is no other dog there, but he still doesn't seem to understand the concept of mirrors. But then, the ceiling fan completely freaked him out the first time he saw it in action. Apparently, before life with us, he had never been indoors much.

Our other dog uses mirrors in a very clever way (for a dog). We have a large mirror at the bottom of our stairs, so she frequently lays a the foot of the stairs. That way, she can use the mirror to monitor our movements up and down the stairs. She also uses mirrors to make eye contact with us, without having to get up or turn her head. :-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Mine confiscates the mirror to add to his focusing mirror in his death star.

But then, I tend to have more... unusual pets.

The only thing keeping the earth safe at this point is me keeping the damn thing away from mirrors.

[applegrove]

5. My Sam was looking at herself in the mirror tonight (because I held her up to it). She was looking

right at herself and it didn't seem to register.

[GoCubsGo]

6. They don't.

Mine see themselves every day when they climb up on my bathroom counter top. If they notice themselves, they don't react. I guess I need to try putting mirrors elsewhere to see how they'd react.

[kimi]

7. My cats don't care

But the bunnies get very freaked out and will attack the mirror.

[surrealAmerican]

8. One of my dogs used to try to get her reflection ...

... to play with her. It never did run out of the room with her, so she started looking for "the other dog" behind the mirror (the mirror is on the closet door). The other dog seems to understand mirrors better. He actually seems to know it's his reflection.

[david13]

9. Usually a cat or dog will get used to it. They recognize things by

shape, but also smell, so tv or mirror, all mine have soon become convinced that it does not exist, since they cannot smell it, and it never moves outside the box (frame).
dc