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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is my cat being unreasonable

129 replies

ThrilledToTiddlyBits · 01/11/2019 23:54

To insist on only drinking water out of the kids tumbler in the bath?

For context : DCat is 7 years old, neutered male. He has a split food dish but we stopped putting water in one half as he would crunch his kibble over the water, which would then get manky, so both sides of the bowl are for food, it has been this way for years. We also have a dog, who has a bowl of water down 24/7,cleaned regularly. DCat has always shared the bowl (will only drink it via his paw though, dipping the paw into the bowl then licking the water from his paw, very messy but whatever), again this has been the case for years.

Now, all of a sudden he will ONLY drink from the blue plastic tumbler that lives in the bathroom to assist with washing the kids' hair. To the point that he miaws outside the bathroom door if it's shut, and will race us upstairs and straight into the bath to alert us if his cup needs filling. This water, he will lap up directly, no needing to use his paw. He would apparently die of thirst if the tumbler was not available to him.

Is he BU? Why will he not drink from the dog bowl anymore? DCat and DDog don't appear to have had an argument, they both ignore each other to the same extent they always have. The water hasn't changed that I'm aware of. Does bathroom water taste better than kitchen water? Is it possible there is a faint residue of shampoo that is tempting him to the tumbler?

Is my cat an arsehole BU?

OP posts:
Poppins2016 · 01/11/2019 23:59

My 3 DCats think that you are being unreasonable, because cats are never unreasonable.

... Cats like to keep their source of water away from their food. Yours may have put up with the water bowl being too close for comfort for a long time but then found a better/more desirable source (aka the bathroom). I bet you could tempt DCat away from the bathroom by putting a bowl of water somewhere else (as long as it is far away from the kitchen/food bowl)!

BeardedMum · 02/11/2019 00:01

Your cat is unreasonable.

My cat only drinks from the toilet 🤷🏻‍♀️

alibongo5 · 02/11/2019 00:02

Well. Cats are unreasonable - it's in their DNA I think. Just accept that they rule and you are their slave.

Ontheboardwalk · 02/11/2019 00:03

Not read your post at all. The answer is yes of course he’s being unreasonable but you have to suck it up.

You will never win a dispute with a cat 😃

OnlineShopping · 02/11/2019 00:04

Cats may not ever be reasonable but they are never unreasonable.

WorraLiberty · 02/11/2019 00:04

I just read your OP to my cat

He couldn't give a shit about any of it.

Reinga · 02/11/2019 00:05

YABU to not obey your cat's every whim without question. Grin
My cat will only drink out of a tumbler in the bath or a glass I'm actively using . Apparently they instinctively prefer running/fresh water...or they are just arseholes.

pigsDOfly · 02/11/2019 00:06

I've know several cats - two of them my own - that would only drink out of glasses meant for humans.

I discovered this quite by chance when I came across one of my cats sharing my night time glass of water; god knows how many years we'd been exchanging saliva via this method.

My DD keeps two glasses of water by her bed one for her cats and one for her. Although, she now keeps hers covered after she found out the cat was drinking out of her glass.

I think for many cats it's a preferred way of drinking so your cat isn't BU. On the other hand your cat probably is an arsehole, most cats are Grin

showmethegin · 02/11/2019 00:09

Our cat will only drink out of my water glass on the bedside table or a very particular pint glass of water we leave by the fireplace. Don't bother fighting it OP you will not win. (He still bolts into the bathroom after we've had a shower and drink the leftover water like he's never had a drink in his life.)

BlueskysandWind · 02/11/2019 00:09

One of my cats will only drink from the dog's bowl as you're filling it. Is that where you've gone wrong maybe? You can't expect a cat to drink from a bowl a dog has drunk from ffs. Unless the cat feels like it.

3catsandcounting · 02/11/2019 00:09

I've just asked my 3, and they all agree yours is not being unreasonable.
However, their vessel of choice is the pond in the garden, which has free-running water and attractive lily pads.

SusanneLinder · 02/11/2019 00:09

Cats are generally arseholes. This is why I like dogs ( who are also arseholes).

HTH

AutumnRose1 · 02/11/2019 00:13

@WorraLiberty 😂😂😂

LifeInPlasticIsFantastic · 02/11/2019 00:19

YABU. My cat won’t even drink from a tumbler. Only running tap water. But only from the master bathroom sink, so she doesn’t get wet - she has a better angle. If you try and coax her to any of the other four sinks, and run to the bathroom and wail and wail and wail!!

Oh and did I mention she will only do this with an audience? If you so much as look away, she will stop drinking and wail until you watch her again.

She thinks your cat is letting you off easy, and might share her genius method with your cat to teach you a lesson.

Original poster
ThrilledToTiddlyBits · 02/11/2019 00:21

@lifeinplastic I take it all back!! My cat is clearly much more reasonable than yours Shock

OP posts:
Pinkypurple35 · 02/11/2019 00:22

You are completely unreasonable expecting a cat to comply to any of your Grin rules.

My cat either drank out of my own tumbler or a puddle on the drive. He would literally die of thirst before he did anything else!
Cats set the rules and.that.is.it.

MrsNoMopp · 02/11/2019 00:23

Cats are always unreasonable. HTH Grin

PerkingFaintly · 02/11/2019 00:24

Yes.

(I didn't bother reading the OP. It was wholly superfluous to answer the question in the title...)

AuntyElle · 02/11/2019 00:29

A kitten has just jumped on top of my duvet and peed on me. My pajama bottoms are now warm and wet. I too feel that this is pretty unreasonable behaviour.

AlexaAmbidextra · 02/11/2019 00:30

I’ve got one the same. She has two bowls and a fountain but has recently decided she will drink only from a running tap in the bathroom. So she doesn’t dehydrate I find myself responding to pathetic scratching at the bathroom door at all hours of the day and night. All cats are arseholes.

StillMedusa · 02/11/2019 00:30

We have (in order preference)
The pond... preferably with a little fish food sprinkled for extra fishy flavour
My water glass...anywhere
My night time water glass. I put a stop to that when I woke one night to find her slurping away...I am mean and take a screwtop bottle to bed.
The toilet.

The nice clean (away from cat food) water bowl is entirely ignored!

To be fair, the dog is the same!!!

herbsmokedchicken · 02/11/2019 00:33

Generally I never see my cats drink so don’t know their preferred water source but when one of my cats got quite elderly and senile, she would only drink manky puddle water. Or water that had gathered in an upside down bin lid. Or a wheelbarrow. I’d try and get her to drink fresh water because I wasn’t sure how good her immune system was by that point but she wasn’t having it. Once she went down the road to my neighbour’s garden and started drinking out their pond - by this point she was 20 and frail so the 20 foot trek was a big journey to her but she was that desperate for scabby pond water Hmm

Cats are just odd.

HoppyHop · 02/11/2019 00:34

No, your cat is a cat, they do what they like and expect us to just get on with it!
My first cat would only drink from running water in the bath. It was just the norm.

Current cat doesn't seem to drink any water??!

LifeInPlasticIsFantastic · 02/11/2019 00:35

Yes Thrilled, she’s a knob character that’s for sure Grin

We bow down to her superior ways because she’s bloody cute and we’ve also learnt she’s the boss in this house, we are merely the humans she allows to coexist with her.

Other unreasonable behaviour:

  • does not like the oven door to be opened in her presence and will claw you half to death should you forget.
  • feels the mop is her arch nemesis and will find it and fight it until we move it... and then she looks for it again.
  • hates curtains with a burning passion and will shred them upon hanging. Will just about tolerate blinds.
  • hates BIL Confused will not even enter the room if he is here.
tunnocksreturns2019 · 02/11/2019 00:37

I’ve got a great video of my cat drinking very enthusiastically from the glass on my bedside table last night 😻🤢