Cat Tricks

[sleigh]

We have a dripping faucet in the bathtub, which we never fix since both cats like to drink from it. But Ana, our female cat, has a curious habit whenever she takes a drink. She'll go up to the faucet, and she'll paw at the side of the tub directly underneath the faucet, as if she has to 'start' the drips flowing (mind you, the faucet's already dripping...). Then, after several swipes of the paw, she'll start to drink. It's a ritual, a habit, an instinct: there's no cause and effect here because when she comes up to it, the water's already dripping. But she does it every time...

Wonder where that came from?

Comments

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

My cats drink from a water goblet I keep full for them. The boy cat has to nudge it and slap it around a little with his paw, sometimes nearly spilling it, before he deigns to drink it. I don't know where that comes from either.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

It's more satisfying when he has to hunt it down and kill it, instead of just having it handed to him.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Possible explanations:

(a) There was a time in the dim and distant past when the faucet didn't drip continuously, and she pawed at the tub wall, and by coincidence it started to drip, and she made a connection between the two.

(b) She's doing it to bewilder the catstaff.

(c) Cats is weird.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Depth gauge? Touching the side of the tub helps her establish exactly where it is in relation to her face and the water.

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

We had a cat who had to excavate his water bowl on a regular basis - splashing water all over the placemat beneath it, before he would settle down to drink. I suspect it's related to digging up water from mud, in the wilds - like dogs turning around to squash "grass" before they sleep in the living room.

Or else, it's because cats are weird.

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

When my beloved Seamus came to live with me there was a serious drip in the tub faucet. He (no more than 6 weeks at most) started to drink from it, and taught all my other cats, both those that were already there and the ones that came after. Today he and one of his cohorts refuse to drink anywhere but the bathtub in the master bath - I have to put a second water bowl there. He even sometimes drinks from the gerbil water bottle I put up there to see if he'd like that. He's an odd cat.

[tcastleb.livejournal.com]

Hmm. My cat paws at the water bowl too. I need to get a heavier one, because she moves it all over. I think I read somewhere that they can't smell the water, and they actually like older, more stagnant water because they can smell it. My cats love to drink out of dishes in the sink.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Today's Kit 'n' Carlyle (http://www.comics.com/comics/kitncarlyle/archive/kitncarlyle-20080517.html) cartoon is a curious coincidence.

[ontology101.livejournal.com]

Sammy hops in the tub, between the shower curtain and liner, and drinks to his heart's content every morning. I know he knows how to drink from a bowl but he prefers the running shower. Could it be the water temperature? He then hops up on my bed and begins licking his sopping wet tail which was inevitably sticking out from beneath the liner, floating in the swirling water.

Ella will place both her front paws in the water bowl and stir it up good...then she licks her paws.

Both are knuckleheads. But they are my knuckleheads.

Anne

[rhhiannon65.livejournal.com]

Ha yeah

[wbm.livejournal.com]

I'm continually fascinated by my cat, Veronika. She reaches for doorknobs (which she cannot reach) and for drawer handles (which she can reach), but she merely touches them. It always makes me think that she, & possibly any cat, can see the hand of the leader (their human) touch the handle & therefore make the door/drawer open (in your case, the faucet turn) but misses the detail of the fingers wrapping or the opposable thumb grasping. And some cats do learn how to wrap a paw around & pull a drawer open. Thankfully she's been able to free herself from behind a barely-ajar door by pulling at the bottom corner & been able to hit the kitty litter when needed.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I know that last one, too. Both of our cats will open barely-shut doors by sticking a paw underneath the appropriate corner and pulling.