Adventures in Cat Fountains

This is a cat fountain.
This is water streaming through a cat fountain.
This is a cat watching water streaming through a cat fountain.

I think she believes it's an alien creature.

---

The idea for the cat fountain came, as do many good things, thanks to Neil Gaiman. Or, more precisely, from his online journal. He mentioned that he'd eBayed a cat fountain so that his cat would have somewhere to get fresh water after he tightened up the knobs in his bath tub.

Because, you see, his cat had learned how to twist the knobs to turn on the faucet in the bath tub.

To get fresh water.

And the cat had also learned how to put the stopper in the bath tub.

Which isn't a very good combination.

---

Wow, cat fountain, I thought, that sounds interesting. Because our cats despise the sitting water in their water bowl and instead drink straight out of our upstairs sink faucet, which never closes quite all the way.

And thus they often wander in to greet us with a wet head or a wet tail.

And the sink gets all icky with cat fur.

---

The site selling the Drinkwell cat fountains (here's one site, though not where I bought ours) says that most cats don't get enough water, because they disdain sitting water.

The Drinkwell cat fountain, meanwhile, keeps water fresher by circulating it. It also has a charcoal filter which is supposed to pull out icky smells and tastes as the water circulates (though it also appears to slowly stain the pastel blue dish black).

I already knew out cats were quite picky about their drinking water. Hell, I often see them queued up in front of the sink, waiting for their opportunity to get wet, just to get slightly fresher water. So I figured the cat fountain would be a good buy. kimberly_a agreed.

---

Smart Cat was very excited when I opened up the box containing the cat fountain last week. When I pulled it out she continued to be excited ... about the box. I set the fountain up in the kitchen to keep water off our hardwood floors, and Dumb Cat joined in the fun.

She knocked the now largely empty Drinkwell cat fountain box off the dining room table.

Twice.

Afterward I showed both of the cats the fountain. Smart Cat was unimpressed. Dumb Cat batted at the water for a while. Then she wandered away too.

---

For days the fountain sat, uselessly circulating its water. Every once in a while I'd bring a cat in and show her the fountain. Dumb Cat batted at the water. Smart Cat wandered away.

Eventually I figured out that one of the problems was the water pressure. I'd set the fountain to maximum circulation, figuring that if circulating water was good, quickly circulated water was even better. The few times that Dumb Cat proceeded beyond water batting to water sniffing, she'd inevitably brush an ear through the side of the water spout and get wet. And that was generally the end of that.

Lower water pressure got Dumb Cat actually drinking the water. And now we've spotted Smart Cat sneaking into the kitchen too, having some drinks of fountain water on the sly.

More curiously, both cats are somewhat engrossed by the fountain itself. I moved a partially broken kitchen chair about four feet to make room for the cat fountain in a corner. Now both cats often sit on that chair, sentry over the fountain--whether they're guarding it from predators or watching to make sure it doesn't do anything funny, I'm not sure.

It looks like the cat fountain was a good purchase. I'm happy if my cats are happy--and if they're getting a healthier amount of water (because they seem to drink and drink when they get to the fountain, more than I've ever seen them from bowl or faucet) that's great too.