Conference misery::feline_v1

    Graham,
    
    Not so wierd really,loads of cats do it but I cant give you any
    reason why. Just be grateful they aint started on the toilet.(yet!)
    
    Phil.

    Perhaps they like "running water" rather than the motionless
    stuff.  Who knows how cats think  ;-)

    Mine beg at the bathroom sink for you to turn the water on.  They
    like it a a slow trickle so they can drink and swat at it.  I can
    only say that maybe its fresher than the bowl everyone has to share,
    even though it is changed and cleaned every day.
    
    
    
    L- & the gang

    I have 2 that are the same as *reply 3*.  Lightning especially will
    just look at me with her big, beuatiful eyes and BEG for the water to
    be turned on.  I also have no idea why.  Thunder will also drink from
    the dog's water but seldom from her own.
    
    Yup, they are wierd......but I love them.
    
    Sandi, mom to 4 furry friends and 1 stray
    
    

    re .4
    
    OOPS.... Lightning's eyes are *beautiful*.
    
    Sorry
    
    

    
    my stella is another weird water baby.  if i don't catch her, she will
    drink water out of my hand-washing basin, or out of the tub.  she has
    even gone so far as to splash water out of her bowl onto the floor,
    then lap the water from the floor!
    
    and i change the water in the bowl at least twice daily.  sigh!
    
    diane, stanley & stella (*still* the h*llcat)
    

    Kelsey and Kirby are also into "sink" water in a big way.  They
    like us to fill up the bathroom sink for them so they can drink
    out of it (oh boy, a LAKE!), and of course they *must* have ice
    cubes!  Heaven forbid we forget the ice!!
    
    It has been mentioned before in this file that cats like their water
    away from the food.  Perhaps this is why the sinks and bathtubs
    intrigue them.
    
    
    --Roberta
    

    My kids like to have a bowl on the counter beside the sink.  As of
    this morning, they are BANNED from having their bowl up there.  
    When Terro jumps from the bar opposite the sink, he usually
    crashes into the bowl of water.  I'm DA*M tired of mopping
    up the wet counter.  Lil is usually dripping after Terror
    finishes - they are bestest buddies - Monkey-See_Exotic-Do,
    if ya know what I mean.  What an example to follow!  Now,
    they will drink from the floor and like it....grrrrrr
    
    An_ever_mopping_Mom

    Sort of releated, one of our cats, when I was gowing up, ran into a
    car.  She was chasing another cat across the street when a car was
    driving by, the chased cat made it in front of the car, but Tiffany ran
    head long into the front wheel!
    
    She ended up with a broken lower jaw and a cleft pallet.  The vet wired
    the lower jaw but there was nothing he could do about the split roof of
    her mouth.  This caused problems with her drinking, the liquid would
    get up into her nasal cavity and cause her to sneeze (got quite 'gooey'
    at times...)  Anyway, she would much prefer to drink out of a dripping
    faucet, that way the water would just run down her throat and not get
    get up into her nasal cavity.
                            
    Dave

    
    in reply to .3  and .4 - my two cats do the same thing -- they love
    to drink from the bathroom facet. they also love to lean over the
    side of our pool and drink from the pool - (in the summer when its
    opened). they also have a water disk, cinnamon the female sometimes
    drinks from that. magen, the male - bee-lines it for the bathroom
    as soon as i get up in the morning.
    
    Cindi
    

    My A.M. routine is to feed Whiskey because he has been purring on
    my head for about 1/2 hr before the alarm goes off, dump the old
    water clean his bowl and put in fresh water, then go take my shower.
    He never touches the water bowl but waits for me to turn off the
    shower, pull the curtain back and then jumps in the tub and starts
    licking the sides.  I then take a bowl I keep on the side of the
    tub and fill it with water from the tub faucet and he drinks that.
    
    I have yet to see him drink his water next to his food.  If the
    toilet seat is left up he will drink that - needless to say, many
    precautions are taken to see that this does not happen.
    
    Cats have their quirks just like people but oh how we love them!
    

Cats seem to like their water in a specific place.  If you have a cat
drinking from a tap, he/she might not be getting enough water unless you
have a constant drip.  Try replacing any plastic dishes with metal or
glass (plastic always has a film of oil - that's just the nature of the
stuff - and it absorbs odors/flavors....many cats will not drink water
from plastic containers) and try moving the dishes away from food and
kitty litter.  Place the water dish in a position so the cat does not
have to turn his/her back to the larger room area (too vulnerable a
position - instinct will often prevent use)....preferable placement
is one in which the cat can face out to the larger room with either
the side or back near a wall.

Some cats require the safety of either your attention when drinking
(you are there, nothing "dangerous" can happen) or a "safe" place
for the water dish....and, of course, really fresh water.

One woman wrote Cat Fancy that she had installed a fish tank bubbler
in the cat's water dish and her cats loved the water now - it seems
to make the water seem "new" if it has motion....who knows?  Maybe
it's something to look into.

Keep trying - enough water is so important to preventing kidney and
bladder problems.

    
    	I think I mentioned this before in a reply to a similar topic.
     I can't remember if it was my vet that told me, or someone who
    is a dedicated cat owner, but if I remember correctly, cats have
    some sort of instinctive racial memory that tells them running water
    is "safer" than stationary water.  Given the choice, virtually any
    cat will opt for the free-flowing liquid.  Something to do with
    the fact that stationary equates with "stagnant and possibly poisoned".
    Running water has much less chance of a bacterial or chemical buildup.
    	Again, this would be in keeping with the "farther away from
    food, the better" statements.  The closer to dead animals, the better
    the chance of infection.
    
    	Rambling again,
    
    	McQ
    

    re: lapping the sides of the tub -  Some of ours do that too.
    The one I can't figure out tho is Mao licking the sink.  Its
    NOT wet, she just gets up there and licks the top sides of the sink.
    If I don't shut the soap dish she'll lick that too!!!!
    Perhaps its her way of self dosing with something for furballs??
    

        In my experience, wherever you put drinking water and whatever kind
        of vessel you put it in, most cats will prefer to drink somewhere
        else, be it a stagnant pool, a muddy puddle, a watering can, or
        whatever.  Water that's been sitting around for weeks in a plastic
        bowl outside, full of leaves and dead insects, seems to be
        particularly attractive to Milady.

	Yesterday, Pussy (one of my two feline temporary house guests
	during the school holidays) dipped her paw into the almost empty
	little plastic watering can that was on the porch in the sun.  Not
	being very successful in getting a drink, she knocked it over and
	lapped up some of the water that spilled out.

	Is it that they're just a little contrary?  Or just a little crazy?

	Delia

    Isis likes to lie in a damp bath after all the water has run out.
    She doesn't lick the sides or do anything other than lie there.
    Warmth? - who knows?
    
    K