Conference misery::feline_v1

    Hmm, this is quite a dilemma.  The weighted dish helped my Kelsey, who
    also has a water fetish.  Ever since he was a kitten he'd dance around
    his bowl with his front paws, trying to tip the dish over.  With the
    weighted bowl, it doesn't tip, but it does splash.
    
    One day, I bent my head over the faucet of the kitchen sink to get a
    drink.  Kelsey was on the counter watching me.  Ever since that day, he
    has to drink from the sink with his head bent over into the faucet.  If
    I'm not there to run it I will leave some water in the bottom and also
    in the bathroom sink and he'll drink from there.  I also moved the
    water bowl onto the carpet with a large vinyl placemat underneath. 
    Spills are contained to the vinyl which makes clean-up a breeze and
    your carpets and tiles don't get ruined.
    
    This has worked for us.  I know how you feel.  I used to get so mad at
    Kelsey when I'd hear him dancing in front of his bowl, trying to kick
    it over.  What a brat!!
    

suggestion:  there are dog watering devices that hook onto an outside faucet
and which don't give water until the animal "pushes" the end widget to one
side - at point water flows.  Is it possible you could teach your cats to 
drink from the kitchen faucet this way?  If you think so, it might be worth
it to see if you could rig up something like this.

Another suggestion is to place the cat water disk in a large plastic dish pan
or laundry basket with solid bottom....then, even if the water is splashed
or spilled out of the water dish, it won't damage anything and the cats can
still find water to drink.  Not a perfect solution, but as cats tend to grow
up out of the water-player stage, it might be the right solution for now.
Just make sure the big container is large enough that a cat can get into it
to drink - and place the water dish at one end, or in one corner, so the cat
can fit without having to sit on the dish.

    
    Bailey does the same thing as well as just plunking his foot in the
    middle of the water dish and moving it to the proper location on the
    tray. I use a regular cafeteria-type tray with a rim because he flips
    so much water around I needed to confine the area more. I just pick it
    up and dump it in the sink.  I started out with a placemat but it just
    didn't cut it.
    
    
    

    
    I wonder if cats could be trained to drink from one of those
    rabbit/hamster/mouse watering tubes - probably, if they can drink from
    faucets :^}
    
    Sandy + Smudge, Tas, Jenny, C.C., Beau and Spike
    

    
    Sandy a friend of mine uses those watering tube type things in her
    grooming shop.  I was a little surprised to see them and stood there
    and watched.  They didn't seem to have a problem using them.
    
    

    Last night a raccon showed up on my back steps, where I leave a water
    dish out for my nephew kitties, etc.  He or she did the playing in the
    water with paw number also.
    

    A friend of mine used to keep a very large bowl of water in the bath
    tub for her cat Mickey - who really had a thing about water - was
    absolutely fascinated by the stuff.  She tried leaving a glass in the
    sink, but that wasn't enough and by the time she got home the two water
    dishes were empty as well leaving her other two cats high and dry so
    she opted for a large mixing bowl full of it in the tub.
    
    Giudi

re: raccoons and water

the raccoon "washes" his/her food in water....a guy I knew who had a 
raccoon as a pet learned quickly to NOT give the coon bread or other foods
that deteriorated when dunked vigorously in water.  It just confused the 
poor animal no end to have the goody dissappear when washed.

    Thanks for all the suggestions!  I thought for a while that Oscar was
    just living up to his name in being a slob, but he proved me wrong. 
    Last night I was sitting on the floor (fixing a tile) with a glass of
    water beside me and Oscar starts sticking his nose in it.  So before
    the paw had a chance I picked up both Oscar and the water. Low and
    behold I put the glass of water up to his lips and held him much like
    you would an infant and he drank the whole glass of water (6oz.).  Well
    I had a talk with him, as if it's really going to help!  But I did get
    a kick out of my extremely domesticated kitty.  Hopefully he will grow
    out of this stage, which his brother finds extremely annoying, and in
    the mean time I'll try lunch trays, vinyl mats, and leaving water in
    the sink!  Thanks again.
    
    Regards,
    Kim

    Maybe you could try a "water hole" -- I have one for my dog.  It's a
    typical water dish but it has a cover (that snaps on like a tupperware
    cover) with a small (about 2 1/2" diameter) hole in the center of the
    cover.  I originally bought it for traveling (water can't spill out of
    it), but discovered that the dog can tip it upside down and only very,
    very little of the water will come out.
    
    I got it at an Agway store ... probably most feed stores will have
    them.
    
    Jo-Ann

    
    	Wow and I thought it was just Iris that was wierd. I noticed her
    	emptying her water bowl with her paws about a week ago. I am
    	concerned since the kitchen floor is a hardwood floor and the
    	placemat was getting soaked. I'll have to try the tray idea.
    	
    	At 5 months old she is doing all sorts of wierd things and driving
    	us nuts. As a child we had kittens, but I guess when you aren't
    	cleaning up after them you don't notice this odd behavior.
    
    		Thanks for the ideas.
    			Joyce

    
    	Oh I should have added to .11 that after Iris gets her paws 
    	soaked she runs across the hardwood floors and slides. She
    	will then go back for more water to get in another good slide.
    	Before the water bowl it was the toilet or the dripping bathroom
    	sink. I couldn't help but laugh the day she got her paws wet and fell
    	in the toilet. Needless to say I shut the lid right away now. 
    
    			Just had to share that wierd story.
    
    				Joyce

    Gee, I thought I had the only wierd cat that liked to play with water. 
    I hate to tell you, but our cat was about 6 years old and STILL played
    in the water and splashed it out of the bowl!  What we did was to get
    some of those disposable aluminum casserole pans and then placed the
    cat's water dish inside of it.  It works fine and when the pan gets dirty,
    you can just throw it out.
    
    Also, I thought I'd warn you about Christmas-time.  I know our cat
    loved nothing better than to play with the water for the Christmas
    tree.  It was always a battle to see if we could block the access to
    the tree stand... somehow, he always managed to get at it (and drip
    water on any gifts under the tree).
    
    You can't help but laugh at it, though!
    
    Janet

    What timing for this note....I have been following this note
    and laughing at all the problems with water and kitties.  Well
    I do have a few cats that love water...but have never had a 
    waterbowl problem with the eight of mine....until yesterday!
    
    I came home from work to find the water dish tipped over and
    water on my floor.  I said...okay this must have been an
    accident...and didn't think much of it!  Well I woke up this
    morning to the water dish tipped over and water on my floor.
    Someone is playing games with me...I swear they get into
    this notesfile to get ideas!!
    
    Now I have to go re-read this note...to get some ideas on how
    to stop this from happening.  
    
    Sandy...who's trying to figure out which one did it!!!
    

    .14
    
    This has happened to me a few times.  I've come home to find the entire
    food set up spread all over the kitchen - water bowl empty and upside
    down, dry food all over the place and the dishes with the wet food as
    well as water all over the place.
    
    Well, ya know that they never pull this stuff when you can see them and
    catch them at it - but for once I was in luck.  I got up extra early
    this one morning and put out their food and proceeded to get ready and
    as I was walking down the hall I heard this un-familial noise from the
    kitchen - there was Stitch (the other two were watching) trying to bury
    the wet food without too much success so what the little creep did was
    flip the whole food set up - he got his paw under the mat - pulled it up
    and out which set everything flying about.  I don't serve that
    particular flavor anymore - thank you.
    
    
    Giudi 

    Now I thought the "water dip" was another Scottish Fold trait.
    Shadow would stand in front of the water dish and scoop the water
    out of it.  Funny, he didn't start this until after Nancie Belser
    told me that her folds all do it and asked me if mine do.
    
    We also have the SFBU in my house.  That's "Scottish Fold Bedmaker's
    Union".
      Nancy
    

    
    
    	Nancy,
    
    	Is it mandatory for a cat to be a Scottish Fold to belong
    	to that union?  If not, I think Chloe would like to sign
    	up!
    
    	JJ
    

    Our Marge did a variant on this, she would drink "normally" out of her
    water dish occasionally but seemed to prefer drinking by dunking a paw, 
    licking the water off and repeating. Usually out of the watering can
    that sat on the kitchen floor. She also drank from dripping faucets and 
    would race to play with the puddles in the tub after someone took a
    shower. All the time with a full water dish (changed twice daily)
    sitting there untouched. 
    
    Since we moved to the house it seems to have stopped (too bad it was
    kinda cute and the spillage very minimal) she drinks conventionaly
    from her water dish and has not been observered dipping even though the 
    watering can is still there. As for the tub, it has much higher walls,
    too high for a cat with wet paws to scale easily as she discovered a
    couple weeks ago much to her dismay. Since then she's been very careful
    to avoid the tub when it's freshly wet.  

    Eddie Haskell dips his paw in the water before drinking. I think he
    does this because when the water is still, he has a hard time seeing
    it. If he causes ripples, he can see the water level better.
    
    What do you think he would do if I put butterfly decals on the bottom
    of his water dish???!!!!!
    
    ng

    re: SFBU - Well, we do have some honorary members of the Scottish
    Fold Bedmakers Union.  Bumpytail is one such member.
      Nancy DC
    

    I had a vet tell me that the reason cats play with their water so much
    is because of their farsightedness.  They can't see the top level of
    the water when it's still, so to avoid dunking their nose in the water,
    they do whatever they can to get it sloshing so they can more easily
    see the water level.
    
    Stan&Muffin&Alex