Friday, February 2, 2007

The Saga of the Water Bowl

Jessica drinking out of the bathroom sinkA long, long time ago the bathroom faucet developed a leak. It wasn't a big deal for us, since it never turned into a gusher. But it turned out that Jessica figured out that water tastes better when drunk out of a sink than from a bowl on the floor. So she'd climb up there to drink.

Actually, it was just as easy for me. I would leave a bowl in the sink to catch the water, and that way I never had to worry about keeping a water bowl on the floor for her clean and full.

After a while I fixed the faucet, and Jessica went back to drinking out of a dish on the floor.
Jessica is a little nervous about climbing down afterwards.
For some reason, Jessica started to play with her water this summer. At first it was just a matter of pushing the bowl around on the floor until it splashed. At first I would make sure the bowl was full. Then I gave her a bigger bowl, quite a large heavy one, in fact. At that point she started to put her paw in the bowl to play with the water. Splish splash, water all over the floor. Kitty litter being tracked all over the house, and muddy footprints everywhere. I was not pleased.

When I found that the faucet was dripping again, I encouraged her to drink from it. I ended up eliminating her water bowl so she wouldn't make such a mess.

When Jessica went blind, she had trouble climbing up to the sink. I boosted her a few times, waited until she was done, then set her down. But often she was in no hurry to get down. When I put a water dish on the floor and she started to drink from it, that was just fine with me.

Jessica sleepingAs Jessica began to figure her way around the house again, she decided she would prefer to drink her water out of the sink. She would climb up to the sink by way of the toilet, drink her water, and try to figure out how to get down.

Unfortunately, she had this tendency to fall into the trash next to the vanity instead of landing on the toilet. Generally she would get herself out after a struggle. It certainly was clear from the mess where she had been.

This morning I got up and found both bathroom rugs in a pile next to the trash. Since it's clear she doesn't call me when she's in trouble, I ended up putting a couple of boards across the toilet seat and covering the trash. She's a little uncertain what it all means. With any luck, she'll learn in a day or two that it's safe to get down from the sink again.

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