Silly cat

As some of you know, my cat Emmylou is, well, a bit strange. Both my cats are strange, but in different ways. Gumbo is just demonic. Emmylou, on the other hand, has a lot of dog in her. First off, she loves people. People she knows, total strangers, probably even serial killers: she loves them all. Walk into my house and you're guaranteed Emmylou will be on the back of the chair in the living room, wanting some attention from you. I'm sure she's a great disappointment to the species as she somehow missed the memo on the appropriate level of aloofness and disdain for humans.

Anyway, I've found a new Emmylou quirk. Over the past couple of months, she has changed her preferred method of hydration. A bowl of water is just no good for her. No, she insists on getting her water by licking around the bottom of the sink after I run water or licking the bits of water that ooze out under the shower door or other equally bizarre things. It's kind of cute, but it's annoying when you're trying to brush your teeth and this fuzzy animal insists on getting in the sink. Last week I came up with a potential solution.

See I thought her fascination might be with the freshness of the water or the fact that it's almost flowing water instead of just standing water in a bowl. Hence, I was intrigued when I saw a display of those "flowing pet bowls" at Big Lots. If you don't know, basically it's a water bowl with a towering base on the backside and a ramp coming down into the bowl proper. A small pump circulates water through a filter and then lets it flow down the ramp into the bowl. It was pretty cheap, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Well it worked -- sort of. Gumbo took to it right away. Emmylou, however, was more skeptical. She approached it from many angles, with much sniffing, licking, and rubbing. Finally she investigated the water itself. She certainly was fascinated by the flowing water, but she was a little frightened about sticking her face down into the pool of flowing water. Instead, she stood by the bowl, raised one paw, plunged said paw to the bottom of the bowl and then proceeded to lick the water off her paw. Now I've seen a couple of cats drink this way before, but not like Emmylou. First, she sunk her paw WAY down into the water. It's probably a couple of inches deep and she went all the way to the bottom. Second, she didn't do this once or twice. No, she must have done this plunge/drink thing 10 times. I can't decide if she likes it or not, but it does seem like I'm able to brush my teeth in peace now so I guess it's working.

Bless her heart.