sholio: Black cat with autumn leaves (Halloween-black cat)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2015-04-04 09:00 am

I wonder what is going on in his furry little head

Our cat has never really liked to drink out of his water bowl. He has a large one -- technically a dog water bowl -- but he doesn't seem to like it. I don't think it's anything to do with the relatively high sides, because he absolutely LOVES to stick his head as far as he can get it into people's water glasses and drink out of them. Or the actual dog's water dish, which is even larger. I wondered if maybe it wasn't clean enough, even though he drinks out of driveway puddles, so I made sure to keep the water frequently changed and fresh. Nope.

A few months ago, I came across a small dish, which I think was his old food bowl. I decided to see if he wanted to drink out of that, so I filled it and put it beside the other one.

HE LOVES IT. And now he will only drink out of it. (Well, and water glasses and the dog's dish and the dishwater and the sink drain and puddles in the driveway. Etc. But not the large bowl.) When the water in the little bowl runs out, he acts like a pathetic tragic animal who is DYING OF THIRST, RIGHT HERE, DYING ON THE FLOOR, ~LOUDLY~, until I refill his bowl. Which I usually do by pouring out of the big bowl. And he can sit right there and watch me do it, and then he's all, "Thank you, human! Water now. Hooray. I was so very thirsty!" (He'll rub on my hands so energetically while I'm pouring it that he'll make me spill it. He's never acted like this about water before. He doesn't even usually act that way about FOOD.)

IT'S THE EXACT SAME WATER. LITERALLY. THE VERY SAME.

Weirdo.

(On the other hand, I run my perfectly fresh and drinkable water through a Brita filter and keep it in the 'fridge to make it that few degrees cooler than it comes out of the tap, so maybe I am not one to talk.)
gwyn: (pussypad kerry beary)

[personal profile] gwyn 2015-04-04 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I have this really nice filtered water thing for the kids, and they love it, but they love even more drinking the stagnant water from around the yard fountain or that collects in the chair covers of the patio furniture. They would much rather drink from that. I don't even get it. And when I have a foster dog, they will drink from the dog's water, which I usually give the dogs so the cats can have their fountain undisturbed, but then the dogs are always afraid of pissing off the cats and go drink out of the fountain. I end up just sort of crying inside.
madripoor_rose: milkweed beetle on a leaf (Default)

[personal profile] madripoor_rose 2015-04-04 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
LOL. I'm sure it makes sense to the cat.
umadoshi: (kittens - Claudia - pensive)

[personal profile] umadoshi 2015-04-05 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
The ways of cats are not to be understood by the likes of humans. *solemn*
st_aurafina: Rainbow DNA (Default)

[personal profile] st_aurafina 2015-04-05 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Cats are so magic sometimes, seriously.
krait: a sea snake (krait) swimming (Default)

[personal profile] krait 2015-04-05 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
Haha, pets, man! *shakes head* The dog has distinct preferences for water, too; in spite of how nice and clean we keep her bowl in the kitchen and refill it to avoid staleness, her opinion on water options is definite: kitchen bowl<backyard bowl<horrible green-scum-lined gutter puddle !
Edited 2015-04-05 02:39 (UTC)
auburn: Pic of Matt Bomer, eyes down (Intent Neal)

[personal profile] auburn 2015-04-05 08:50 am (UTC)(link)
I was going to ask if the big bowl is metal? Sometimes animals don't like those. At least all my cats have objected to stainless steel.

genarti: Marmalade cat looking in mirror, image of a lion staring back. ([misc] mirror mirror tell me true)

[personal profile] genarti 2015-04-06 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, cats.

We have one who drinks normally, and then our other cat... uh. Well, she does drink out of her water bowl, but she almost never drinks straight from the bowl. Instead, she dips her paw in the water and licks it dry. (Or slops it on the floor, sometimes, of course.) Sometimes she'll also lick droplets off the side of the bowl. Whenever one of us takes a shower, she runs eagerly into the bathroom to wait until she can lick water off the shower curtain. If you run water into the sink, she'll lick the faucet afterwards, or lick the stream of water itself if it's a thin one -- but not if you've just washed your hands, presumably because ewww, soap smell.

Meanwhile both cats get really, really excited when I move kibble from one bowl to the other. IT'S BRAND NEW FOOD OH WOW SO EXCITING.
medie: Toothless giving epic bitchface (httyd - toothless - bitchface)

[personal profile] medie 2015-04-06 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Mine would not drink from her water bowl in the porch with her food. NOPE. She has to have a bowl in the bathtub. IDK. (Thus she gets uber cranky when we take baths because we are in her water bowl's bowl and this is not ON humans!)
torachan: (Default)

[personal profile] torachan 2015-04-07 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm, maybe I should try a different bowl for Heidi. She will drink out of the one we got for her, but she's really not as into it as she is my water glass... I thought maybe it was just that she likes the cold water of my glass, rather than room temperature, but maybe she just doesn't like the bowl itself for some unknown cat reason.