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Ask Dr. Rob: Aqua Feline
September 5, 2007
The next question is from an old friend (at least as far as blogging friends go - that means over 6 months) Cathy, who writes me the following:
I hope you can answer this question for me. I have searched and searched for a long time and can not find an answer. "Why do cat’s prefer toilet water, over a fresh bowl of clean tap or even bottled water?" I have just posted on my blog about my cat "Gary" and this nasty habit of his. I also linked to you in that post.
She details in her blog post:
Dave almost suffered a stroke when he caught me pouring a 1.29 cent bottle of Aqua Fina into the cat’s bowl. ya’ll know Dave is so tight that his wallet never sees the light of day. But, I thought maybe Gary (the cat), would like some sparkling good water, and would then leave the toilet water for its intended purpose. Nope, didn’t work.
I have to say, that as a physician taking care of adults and children, you may think that I don’t know about cats. Well, you are right on that. But I have a cat in my house named Zander who can answer this question for you.
Hi. I am Zander. I won’t tell you that Dr. Rob is a great master, he is not. He sometimes torments me with a laser pointer and I end up having to humor him by acting playful. He does, however feed me every morning, so he is of some use. He does sometimes forget to feed me (lazy slob - too busy typing on his laptop to feed me. Imagine that!). You just have understand that I need my six meals per day. I have to stay in shape!
So, what about our dear friend Gary?
There are a number of things you must understand about cats. The first thing is that we don’t care what we put in our mouths. One of my main jobs in Dr. Rob’s household is to kill voles living in their yard. I know these varmints really dig up their lawn, so I bring them and leave them in front of the garage so they can see what a good job I do. I think that Mrs. Dr. Rob loves these gifts I leave her. When she steps on them, she yells with happiness! I think that word she uses is a happy one…
Another job I do for them is to get the palmetto bugs. For those of you who don’t know, a palmetto bug is a mutant variety of a cockroach that lives in the deep south and is about 3 inches long. I am not quite sure why, but Dr. Rob’s kids don’t like to sleep in a bedroom with palmetto bugs on the wall. So they usually knock the bug down and let me toy with it for a while. They are really quite fun to play with.
Of course, Palmetto bugs aren’t my favorite play-thing. I really prefer pipe cleaners and straws. I just like the way they spin on the floor when I bat at them.
One day I got bored and went up on the roof of their house. It’s pretty high up. The humans got all worked up and took a bunch of pictures of me. It would have been nice and peaceful, but I couldn’t get away from their pointing and laughing. I was dying with embarrassment. The other cats in the neighborhood haven’t stopped joking about it. I have to train them better.
Most of the time, however, we cats would rather just sit around doing nothing. I greatly prefer sitting in a box, or laundry basket. In these pictures I am also just trying to get into the Christmas spirit. Ho Ho Ho.
My theory as to why Gary is so obsessed with dirty water? First, he has an image to keep up. What kind of self-respecting cat would drink Aqua Fina?? Bottled water is one of the stranger human inventions, you know. Did you realize that the name "Evian" is just the word "Naive" spelled backwards? Humans even try to get cats to eat this kind of "deluxe" food. What kind of cat wants to eat "fancy feast" when they can eat bugs off of the floor?
Me? I drink the water that Holly has drooled in. I am not proud. Toilet water would be fine too. Just don’t try to feed me that fancy bottled water stuff. I’m with Gary. We cats have our limits, you know…
There you have it, Cathy. Straight from the cat’s mouth.
Thanks for the question!
Don’t forget to send more questions to dr.rob.questions@gmail.com.
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September 24th, 2007 at 3:13 am
I can’t speak for anyone else’s toilets, but mine aren’t all that dirty. I had a cat that would only drink from sources of running water; oh, he’d drink from a bowl if he were desperate, but he preferred a nice drippy tap. Failing that, an open toilet would suffice.
I personally don’t like stale water; if it’s been sitting around long enough to get bubbles on the side of the glass, it doesn’t taste as good to me. I figure my cat just felt the same way.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:14 am
I’m sure Gary and Cathy thank you for your sensible response Zander. Loved the pics of your handsome self.
regards
jmb
September 24th, 2007 at 3:14 am
Well Zander, you certainly are handsome. One day, I will have mom post a picture of me, and you will see that you and I look enough alike to be brother’s.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions for Cathy. She is so silly. She is always trying to treat me like I’m some kind of human or something. I talked with her today, after reading what you had written. This is what I have been trying to tell her all along, but she just didn’t get it. Thank you for coming to my defense and making her realize that I am a “normal” cat! Bottled water! Have you ever heard of such a thing?
Now, I want to share something with you. I agree that bugs are so good! But sometimes I just can’t find any around here. When that happens, I just eat the sweeper cord. Oh man, that is really good stuff. So if your bug supply gets weak just go find mom’s sweeper.
it was very nice to meet you Zander. now I am off to drink some of my yummy toilet water!
Sincerely, Gary (the cat who loveeessss toilet water)
September 24th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Toilet water and cats/dogs drinking it? Easy. It’s cool. Not like Fonzie “EEEhhhhh” cool more like “Ah a refreshing porcelain chilled” cool. And it is freshened with each flush unlike the water that sits in a bowl until it is all gone. Very few of us pet owners go up to our pets bowl and say “Oh this water has been sitting here for a few hours. Let me pour it out and freshen it!”
And Zander? As in Willow and Zander and Spike and Buffy Zander? Oh man I miss Spike.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Very nice, Carol. Although Zander likes to be Fonzie cool.
Here’s the story of his name. My daughter made up a word: Zazoo, which means “I like Mint.” We thought that would be a good name for a cat. So when we went for a cat, there were two brothers that we couldn’t separate. One was named Zazoo, but we didn’t know what to name the other. Someone just came up with Zander. Unfortunately, Zazoo was the curious one and his curiosity got him in with a wild animal and he died. Now we just have dear Zander. We mostly just call him “Kitty,” though.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Smart boy, that Zander.
If your cat or dog is drinking out of the toilet, you need to strongly discourage this habit. Think of all the germs… then think of how many of us (well, maybe just me) routinely kiss our pets on the mouth. Ew.
Although cats and dogs seem to have a pretty robust population of natural flora in their mouths, they can and do get sick from the kind of germs that might be found in a human toilet. They can also get sick if they ingest cleaning agents such as Lysol.
I also have heard of kittens and elderly cats who’ve almost drowned when they try to drink out of a toilet and accidentally fall in.
Really, people just need to keep the toilet lid down at all times. Maybe Dr. Rob could invent a device that delivers a stunning electrical shock for bathroom users who fail to comply.
I confess to using bottled water in my bird’s water dish. The cat gets tap water, with ice cubes added in summer. If she ever indicated that she preferred bottled water, I would of course supply it.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:18 am
PJ, you do bring up some points that I have considered. Cleaning solutions do worry me about him drinking from the toilet. I use to always hang those things on the side of the bowl that turns the water ocean blue colored. I stopped because I didn’t know if whatever is in them would hurt him. Now when i clean the toilet I stand there and flush it about 10 times afterwards trying to make sure I get all the cleaning stuff out of there. AND, I am NEVER kissing him on the mouth again!
September 24th, 2007 at 3:19 am
is that Zander from “Starship Troopers?”
May 8th, 2008 at 3:42 am
I was wondering more about Zander from Buffy (or is that spelt Xander anyway? I know it’s short(er) for AleXander)>
Anyways, some cats seem to prefer really stale water for some reason. My friends take measures (keep the loo door shut, seat down) to stop cats getting at the toilet, but they seem to prefer indoor fountain or floating candle water to their water bowls (changed at breakfast and cat supper time every day).