Does your cat love water or hate it? Ours gets ‘bathtub drinks’

I used to think all cats hated to be in water. Every cat I've owned has been appalled at the idea of any baths in water, and really didn't like to get its feet wet.

Until we discovered a year or so ago that our current Queen of the House Cats, Tigra, is fascinated by water coming out of our bathtub spout.

Oh, she won't let us put her into a tub of water. But she will hop down into the drained tub and try to lick at the spout. In fact, we thought of using a hand-held spray nozzle at a gentle setting -- and now she prefers to lap water off the head of that to drinking out of her bowl.

She still drinks from her water bowl, so I know she's getting adequate water. But she has become passionate about going into the bathroom and sitting patiently on the closed toilet stool until we come to give her a drink. She puts her paws on the edge of the tub and laps water off the softly flowing shower head until she's full. She gets these "bathtub drinks" usually twice in the morning and twice in the evening. She even recognizes the phrase, "Want a drink? Drink, Tigra? Drink?"

Not sure it was such a good habit. It's cute to watch -- but it's tedious to do every day.

Ah, well, what are cats for? To train us and enjoy us at their pleasure, I guess.

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