Donna Grove, age 12, of Richmond, Va., for her question:

ARE CATS REALLY COLORBLIND?

As you can imagine, learning how each animal smells, hears and sees is quite a problem. This study of animal senses is quite new  and some of the early results are being questioned. For example, the first tests suggested that cats are colorblind. Later tests seem to prove that they have good color vision.

One way to test a cat for color vision is to give him a choice of colors with his favorite food. But cats tend to fail this test  maybe because they refuse to co operate. However, examination of a cat's eye reveals the special rod and cone cells that detect colors. Obviously a cat can see colors ¬though the mysterious critter prefers to keep this talent a secret.