(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

I think my automatic cat-watering device is on its way out the door.

We bought this cheap, devastatingly simple device from a pet store before Christmas to hold over our kitties while various parties were in and out of the apartment over the holidays. It's fairly ingenious: you fill a 2L bottle and when you screw it into the base and turn it upside down, it fills the resevoir until the fill line submerges the bottle opening. As the bowl drains, more air can get into the bottle and water comes down. Perfect, really.

Except that Oscar, bless 'im, is dead fascinated by the water coming out of the bottle neck. He keeps trying to stick his nose up the thing or he gets a paw around it and water is everywhere. And he doesn't stop when he's gotten more to come out. He keeps at it until there's two liters of water all over the floor. He is so intent on getting at the water or playing with the bubbles or something. He bats at that thing like Wally chases invisible flies: constantly and with determination.

I've tried to velcro the device down, keep it rigidly set on a towel (or at least use the towel to contain the mess--no dice), and my latest effort was a rubber mat with little fingers to hold it in place. Also failure. There's got to be a better way for us to be lazy cat parents; to have a dry floor; and to have happy kitties. There's this as an option, which has the benefit of being flat-topped so I could just put a brick on it to keep Oscar from moving it around. Seems that most people are frustrated with how easily it topples over, too, though. I'm not entirely sanguine about buying something that is, for all intents and purposes the same thing I've got in another shape, but I seem to remember hslayer and viridian having one. You guys? Does that work well for you? Do you just have better behaved cats?

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of bordering it with something heavy, like bricks, so it can't shift around. Alternately, put something heavy on the bottom to anchor it...?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Long story short, I need to get my ass to a pet store and look at my options and then decide if there's a viable (read: not too expensive) substitute or if I should keep plugging away at this $6 version.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

We have one of those, but uh, how is it different from what you have? It sounds like they'd be able to do the exact same thing. Ours play in the water sometimes, and if they wanted to they COULD get it out in exactly the same way you described, but mostly they just splash around in it a little bit and then get bored and decided that if they want to play in water, the toilet is a better option.

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the "Le Bistro" brand is exactly the one we have. It's true that you could weight it, but that will only help if they've actually tipped it over. If they just like splashing the water out, not much will help. Baby used to play with it (Maine Coons are known for not hating water like most cats), and I tried a few things, including a placemat-like thing with a raised lip on the edge to catch the water, but not much was too successful.

As M says, our current cats (Data especially) seem to prefer toilet water to drinking water for play. Which means kitty litter tracked everywhere on wet paws. sigh. Sometimes there's no winning.

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

I am so tired that I read your subject as "Automatic cat WALKING" device...and thought that you had a contraption to walk the cats out in the hall of the building while guests were over. i was trying to picture how this involved a bottle of water until I realized that it was all about water to begin with...

Anyway, we had to give up on the automatic waterers because Bleys would spill everywhere, too. :/

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Not exactly hopeful, but I'll keep working on this, I suppose. I don't know if I should resort to desperate measures or not--surely, if I bought the FIVE GALLON one that's for large dogs, it would be too heavy for them to push around?

There are a couple of cheap options to explore before I give up, then I can either cave and spend $40 on a water fountain for the cats or just go back to the bowls. The outcome will be determined by whether I am lazier than I am cheap.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I would walk my cats if a) I didn't live in New York City, and b) if they weren't afraid of leaving the apartment in anything other than their cat carrier. I have some pretty scaredy-cat kitties. But I've always cherished a desire to walk a cat. If I had a giant Maine Coon or something, I might just do.

Yeah, the problem with the gravity-waterer is that the water dropping down is this almost Pavlovian sound for them. Oscar hears me turning the bottle upside-down and he comes blitzing into the kitchen to play with his newly refilled toy. I dunno why--he actually balks at the fact that he ends up wet. It's completely stupid, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised (I love him, but he's an idiot--he is the only cat I know with absolutely no sense of balance).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ours tend to drink out of the toilet and play with the water dispenser. How are my kitties so completely stupid?

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking.