This is kind of strange...
The first time I tried my 5mw greenie w/ cat, he ignored the laser but attacked my hand. He was simply more interested in my hand / and / the laser case, and me twirling it. I could have been holding a pencil, for all he cared.
Later on, it got dark so I took my Laserglow Lyra B-5 outside. This is my first green laser, so I am very impressed, even though it is only 4-5 mw (according to Laserglow... probably accurate). I could light up an apartment building across the highway I.E. could see a bright green spot... maybe... 1/4 mile or so away? A city blocks worth, anyway. I can see the beam fairly well at a low angle of incidence... at 90 degrees / perpendicular, I can JUST percieve the beam.
Same inside... indoors / darkness (television is the only light source in the room) I can see the 4-5mw beam pretty well with a low angle of incidence. at 90 degrees / perpendicular, I can JUST perceive it.
Cat still ignores the green dot (??) but started chasing / grabbing at the beam! Sort of like when a cat plays with a stream of water from a faucet. I played at all angles. I wish I had a vid camera... that poor cat just grabbed and grabbed, trying to "slap" the green beam down to the floor I guess. It follows that with better night vision, he can see the beam better than I can. Not sure why he would ignore the green dot (?)
From wikipedia, topic "Cat":
However, domestic cats have rather poor color vision and (like most non-primate mammals) have only two types of cones, optimized for sensitivity to blue and yellowish green; they have limited ability to distinguish between red and green,[77] although they can achieve this in some conditions.[78]
That note number 78 links to a big PDF full of technical charts and stuff. I didn't read into it much.
