Can you visualize your pet's (pets') face(s)?

[Bossy Monkey]

I can't visualize much, to be honest, so I'm hardly the test case. When Alice and I were together, I could easily visualize her face though. Amelia the monkey cat, with whom I spend practically all my time, and who believes her life is not complete unless she spends a fair amount of that time with her face in front of mine (thus her sometime nickname, Face-Time Continuum) has a wonderful face I nevertheless cannot visualize. I think that the human brain is made for remembering the faces of other humans best, but I'm certainly aware that I am at the bottom on any scale of visualization skills and would be thrilled to hear that other people have no problem picturing their pet's face or their pets' faces. So can you? Edit: And if yes, did you have a pet as a child? (because I didn't)

[KamaAina]

1. Yes -- and, alas, they are all long gone.

Of course, I'm cheating with Seanie the orange tabby, 'cause Mom gave me an old picture of him a couple of years ago.

And remember, I'm sort of in the same boat with you when it comes to face recognition 'n' stuff. :hi:

[Bossy Monkey]

6. Does that make me extra aspie?

Of course this might have something to do with the fact that I never had a pet until age 44 or so. I still have time to edit the original post; maybe I'll add "If yes, did you have a pet as a child?"

As to Aspourgeoisness, I recognize faces fine (including the monkey's). I just can't visualize them. Might be a different set of wiring that I'm just missing. Maybe generations of inbreeding between the highly near-sighted led to a brain that just says, "I'm not going to be able to see shit after age 11 anyway; why bother learning to visualize?" (Darwin rolls in his grave.:)):hi: back

Edit: And all sympathies and condolences on the loss of your long-ago pets.

[Shell Beau]

2. Crystal clear.

I have a much harder time hearing the sound of my brother's voice (RIP). I almost have forgotten what he sounded like. That kills me.

[Bossy Monkey]

7. So sorry about your brother.

If you're anything like me, you may find him visiting in your dreams when you don't expect it, as with my late mother and a deceased childhood friend. Sounds creepy, but the dreams are always cheerful and reassuring.

[Shell Beau]

16. For the longest, he did visit me in my dreams, but they

were always dreams where I thought he was alive somehow. I'd find him somewhere and tell him how we all thought he was dead. But then at the end, I'd realize that he was dead. Crazy.

But then I believe he kinda came to me in one of my dreams, and it made a peace of sorts. Now all my dreams of him are pleasant.

[TZ]

3. I can yes

Perhaps because my cats are so similar in appearance (sisters) that I had to pay extra attention to detail

[Bossy Monkey]

9. Zippy!

Monkey says, "You could visualize my face if you'd get that laptop off your belly, dumb butt!" (She doesn't really, but wouldn't it be funny?)

[foxfeet]

4. Yep; all eight of 'em.

Dogs, cats, turtles.

[Bossy Monkey]

10. Very impressive

Clearly I'm weird; I guess everybody noticed already though.:)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Oh, yes. My cats have very distinctive faces and I'd recognize them anywhere.

It's not just the colors and markings. Milo has a round face with big round yellow eyes and a kind of happy look. Pixie has blue eyes and odd stripes with a little white blaze (she's part Siamese), and she has a perky facial expression, with narrower eyes. Jeoffry, the gray tabby, has green eyes, a narrow face and a long, straight nose, and he tends to look kind of intense, sometimes even a little worried. I didn't have to look at them to describe them. I know those little faces just as much as if they were people.

[Bossy Monkey]

12. The monkey has a whole array of expressions or maybe I'm anthropomorphising

Her go-to is sort of puzzled, though.:)

[Left Is Write]

8. Yes, I can.

I can easily picture my pets, those here and those I had in the past.

[Bossy Monkey]

13. Neat! Wish I could n/t

[nuxvomica]

11. Just as I was reading your post, Huckleberry was crying at my door

I recognized Huckleberry's voice and can easily distinguish it from Tommy's, his littermate and brother of some sort. Huckle has a flat voice while Tommy's is higher and more musical.
I can certainly distingush their faces. Tommy has a smaller, more, dare I say, puppy-like face with a pinched little mouth that always seems to register a sense of disapproval. There's a permanent smudge of black on his pink nose and his eyes are always small pupilled, giving him an aspect of perpetual concern.
Huckleberry, on the other hand, is bigger and lankier generally, with more pronounced orange coloring and darker stripes. His pupils are always huge and his ears always up.
I would bet I could pick out both of them in a lineup.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. I would like to see a cat lineup.

"No, officer, it's not #2. The whiskers were longer, and I think he had bigger ears. Maybe #4, but I think he had more pronounced stripes on his forehead. And his fangs were sticking out a little. It's not #5; he had a pink nose. It could be #3. Can you ask him to meow again?"

[nuxvomica]

17. LOL

With a nervous, tearful mouse on the other side of the two-way mirror. The police officers would be dogs, of course.

[Bossy Monkey]

15. Huckleberry and Tommy say, "Lineup! The cops'll never catch us!"

:P

[sammythecat]

18. Yes, past and present

I never thought of not being able to do that. Sort of take it for granted.

I don't know if this is relevant to your situation with visualization, but here's a link you might at least find interesting. I did. It's a first person account and that makes it all the more interesting.
http://www.prosopagnosia.com/main/stones/index.asp

edit: love that face-time-continuum.:P:

[Bossy Monkey]

20. No fair! You're a cat!

The link was interesting, but as far as I know I have no more trouble recognizing faces than anybody else. I just can't visualize worth crap. I guess my point was that what I can visualize is a beloved person's face, but I can't visualize a beloved cat's.

[fizzgig]

19. yup

both mine and those at my dad's house. i would know them anywhere.

[Bossy Monkey]

21. Neat! Did you have pets as a child? n/t

[fizzgig]

28. i was 19 and moved out before i didn't have a cat in my home

i've been cat-less for maybe one of my 28 years.

[Withywindle]

22. Yup. Every pet I've ever had, in fact.

Including the first one I lost, my doggie sister who died when I was 13. (I'm 39 now) I can't even remember the names or visualize the faces of most people I went to school with as a kid or worked with in various jobs in my 20s, but all the past pets are right here with me.

I have to admit, I probably think about my cat more times every day than I do any person.

[applegrove]

23. No. And I had a 1 year old cat that died. He got picked up on the side of the road

by the humane society. I went into their building to identify him. I don't know what I was thinking because the hair on the cat doesn't change color after they die. But I had the damnedest time identifying the right cat. They brought one frozen cat after the other out for me to identify. Then I saw him.

He was my baby. I raised him from 6 weeks old and couldn't even identify him properly. Not a good day for me.

[Bossy Monkey]

25. So so so sorry. But I imagine the trauma had something to do with it.

:hug:

[applegrove]

27. yep. I was pretty traumatized at the time.

[BarenakedLady]

24. Yes

I can still see my late dog Katie smiling as she ran towards me. I can see them all.

[SoxFan]

26. How could I not remember this?

Especially since I usually see this at 5:30 in the morning...