As I sat here at my desk indulging my AskMetafilter addiction, I noticed one small multi-colored cat all stretched out as far as she could directly in front of the water bowl. She kept pawing at the edge of it. I don’t know why she does it. It’s just something she does. Normally, she’s not all stretch out on the floor right beside it. So I sat and watched.
I knew what was going to happen. I could have made any sound at all, and she would have been distracted and toddled off to play with some other non-liquid-containing thing, but sometimes I can’t resist allowing the furry children in this household to do something I know is going to end up annoying them in the end.
The bowl would tip every so slightly, and she gazed at the moving water in amazement. Then she pawed at the edge of the bowl again. Rinse and repeat, until she finally got too excited and gave the edge a good strong tug.
It reached its tipping point, and the entire bowl of water sloshed out and poured on the silly, silly cat … who, all stretched out as far as a small cat can possibly stretch and being in that lazy, sleepy state of mind the cats are always in this time of day, couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. She was drenched nearly from head to tip of tail, standing there in a puddle of water … and squeaking loudly and staring at me with her pitiful look.†
Oh sure … make a mess of yourself and the kitchen floor, and then whine to me to fix the problem? Well, I did, of course. One towel for the floor, and one towel for the wet, squeaking cat. She was so appreciative, she immediately started pawing at the bowl again as soon as I filled it.
I would think she’d eventually learn that playing with the water bowl often leads to getting wet and almost always leads to shrieking humans. The other two learned that lesson by the age of 6 months. Tora will be a year old tomorrow, and she still has a fascination with the water bowl. I’m pretty sure it’s just an attention-getting device and actually has little to do with the bowl or water being that entertaining. Now that she knows completely drenching herself leads to warm snuggles in comfy towels with Mom, I hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence. It’s bad enough having to mop up water almost every day, but drying off a cat will get old quickly.
I have tried other bowls. Alas, the other two cats want that bowl and that bowl only, and any other bowl is frowned upon to the point of them not drinking from it. Eventually, I will pick the perfect cat watering system, and all of them will have to adapt, but for now, it’s just got to be that bowl.
I have another cat tale to tell too, but it’ll have to wait as it’s time for me to get started on the pizza. This one involves the household reaction to the introduction of low fat cat food to the feed bowls. Oh yes, it’s a laugh riot, let me tell you.
Footnotes- † I will have to try to record her squeaking sometime. I’m serious when I say this cat squeaks. [↩]