I have had cats as pets since early childhood and I have two now. The story goes that we own our pets. Well, in my case, my cats own me. They are very spoiled and whatever they want, they almost always get. I always make sure that they have wet food in the morning and evening and dry food is available to them all day.
But what about water? Twice a day, I make sure that their water dispenser has plenty of liquid in it. There is more than enough to keep them healthy. But they don’t see it that way! No, the dispenser isn’t good enough for them.
My cats are spoiled. They favor faucet water and they make that known, quite loudly. Because I spoil them, I give them what they want. It’s cute watching them fight each other over who gets the faucet first. But I have to wonder why. Why, after my two refills a day, would they shun that in favor of faucet water?
Apparently, that favoring has some sound logic behind it. For one, they enjoy the free following, cold water over the room temperature water that they usually get.
On a daily basis, my oldest cat jumps up onto the sink and meows loudly until one of us turns on the faucet. If she’s not meowing, she’s looking at us intently, silently begging us to turn on the water. As it turns out, some cats simply favor faucet water over anything else.
Some cats simply don’t enjoy standing water and some merely hate where their water dish may be located, even though in my case, the food is right next to the water and they have no problem eating food twice (or more) a day.
The argument can be made is that faucet water is safer than standing water, because things can get into the water and can potentially make kitty sick. In my cats’ case, their water is in a protected bottle.
Granted, the water is room temperature, and when they have absolutely no other option, they do drink that water. Their preference is that, when one of their humans is home, they get water straight from the faucet.
Maybe cats have no reason one way or another. Maybe they simply like the taste of water that emerges from the faucet. Either way, I don’t care. Baffling though it may be, if they want faucet water, they can have as much as they want when one of us is around. I obviously won’t leave water running all day, because that would be murder on the water bill.
So, if your cat favors faucet water, I say give it to them. They’ll appreciate it!