I have two cats. Both are relatively young as the oldest just turned 1 (16 in cat years) and the other is about 9 months old (12 in CY). These two are not the brightest of creatures. My recently deceased longtime pet "Lloyd" was a rocket scientist compared to these two. Lloyd never ran into a wall or furniture. Never. These idiots chase each other around the house at top speed and the fun usually stops when the one being chased runs into something. It's like a cartoon to watch him stop and shake it off. Lloyd could also navigate without knocking stuff over. I swear if you put him on a table and placed $50 crystal wine glasses 4 inches apart over the entire tabletop, he could stay up there for hours and never knock anything over. He was smart and graceful. The two dingbats that we "rescued" aren't exactly in that category. If I placed one crystal wine glass in one corner of one step out of the entire flight and then called them.....there is little doubt in my mind that I would be forking over money for a new glass. Don't get me wrong, they are very loving - just not too bright. We like to refer to them as intellectually challenged. Maybe they will get wiser with age. The little guy is his momma's boy. If my wife even looks at him he gives her a pathetic little "meow". They will then carry on a very detailed conversation. The older one shuns all attempts at affection until after 11 pm when he becomes sleepy and then he expects you to be his best friend and tries to sleep physically on top of you.....hoping you will put an arm around him and maybe forget that he ran from you all day when all you wanted to do was pet him. Why do I bring any of this up? Because they are driving me crazy. We have 2 matching sets of bowls for them and apparently they like the community approach because they will both eat and drink from either. We have both sets end-to-end in a corner at a 90 degree angle. So, picture the 4 bowls and let's call them bowls 1, 2, 3 and 4. Two bowls contain food, two bowls contain water. This is where it gets weird. I started out putting water in bowls 2 and 4. At the end of the day, 2 would be near empty - 4 would be completely full. Hmmmm. After noticing this, I would not refill bowl 2 to see what would happen. Bowl 2 would become bone dry and bowl 4 would still not be touched. I assumed at this point they were drinking water from leftover glasses or worse but after 2 days they eventually started drinking from bowl 4, but not that much. Mind you, the same bowl is not always bowl 2.....the numbers I'm talking about are for position only. I know this because I tested it as well (it's what QA guys do). After a day if I removed empty bowl 2 and replaced it with full bowl 4....refilled bowl 2 and placed it in slot 4.....they would gulp down the 1 day old water from bowl 4 which was now bowl 2. Are you following this? I did that for a few days which proved it wasn't just the bowl. Ahhh, it must be the placement. The next test was to move the water to bowls 1 and 3. Same results. After a few days I moved the water to bowls 1 and 2. Same results. I moved the water to bowls 2 and 3 and then I moved the water to bowls 3 and 4. SAME RESULTS. They would always nearly empty one bowl before touching the other! Why? Why, Lord, Why? The food? Didn't matter. They will eat from either bowl. They will eat at the same time from the same bowl or at the same time for different bowls. They will start eating at different bowls and the next time I look down...they switched places. The water? One bowl has to be empty (read: bone dry empty) before they will even consider drinking from the other bowl. The funny thing is....when I move the full bowl to where the empty one is - they start drinking it - no problems. I seriously think they are trying to drive me crazy! I think they get together and "meow meow" to each other and plan out their drinking habits for that day. I am tempted to put out no food and have water in bowls 1-4! Who makes the decision as to which of the 2 water bowls will be used? Is it totally random? Is it left versus right? I need some medication. I need a dog.
11 comments:
You need a life! This is too funny. Have you tried changing the bowls so they are not at a 90 degree angle? Perhaps they like the one closest to the corner...like it's the most sheltered or safe? Are the colors of the bowls the same?
need a life? i need to know how things work! it takes me all of 1 minute to fill bowls and change positions. colors? it's two of the EXACT same sets. every position, every config has been explored.
You need a life AND you need a dog.
It may take you only one minute to fill bowls and change positions but you may have to wait hours or days to see how the cats respond in order to make your evaluations and figure out how to structure your next test.
Dogs are creatures of habit. They eat from the same bowls in the same position every day and they like it like that. Community water bowl only.
Most importantly, when the food bowl hits the floor they immediately eat. Failure to do so is immediate cause for concern as each knows damn well if they don't eat their food the others will. When other dogs come to visit they quickly learn this house rule or they do not eat. One missed meal is usually enough to train the guest.
This also means that only one dog has season tickets to the "Gator Bowl."
I wouldn't go so far as to say a dog's a filthy animal, but they definitely dirty. But a dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way. - Jules Winnfield.
well, yeah, but i'm not sitting by the bowls with a note pad waiting for them!
digging the quote from my favorite movie!
Just curious, does your wife refer to the kitchen (I presume you feed the cats in the kitchen) as the Feline Behavioral Science Lab?
"So by that logic, if a pig had a better personality he'd cease being a filthy animal?" -Vincent Vega
i have a sore spot when we talk about my wife and the cats. around the time she was pregnant we read somewhere that she should stop cleaning the litter box due to the pregnancy. i think it's a farce conjured up by some women's group to get the man of the house to do more chores.....because as far as i know...unless i'm gone on business for a week...i'm the only person in the house who has touched the litter box for the past 7.5 years. likewise on the feeding. when precious princess was about 4 we got her a chore chart to "earn" her allowance. feeding the cat was one of the items on the list. i think in the last 3.5 years she may have fed the beasts 20 times. thats about 1000 times for me, 20 for her...yet somehow on friday she NEVER forgets to ask me for her cheddar. so, i in essence....am the person soley responsible for their survival but am i the favorite? Noooooooooo. they will come to me for love when wifey isn't home, the girl is busy, no guests are present and it's been a few hours since everyone else left the house....THEN all of i sudden i'm good enough to come visit. damn cats.
How about replacing the 2 bowls with 1 larger one?
ahhhh, but you see, the bowl sets arent just bowls. each set is a wooden stand that houses 2 ceramic bowls. the wood and bowl sets were chosen because they match the kitchen. i'm thinking i should try moving them far apart and when i fill them initially and they come running.....split them up and maybe they will each "own" a set instead of sharing. hmmmmmmmmmm.
I think still a sis is right, get a life, just fill the empty bowls and let it go. If this is all u have to worry about life must be good. Maybe a couple of dogs, " Mans best friends would keep you sane".
life is superb. no worries anywhere. my biggest concern is what restaurants i want to eat at over the weekend.
i guess i didnt articulate very well while i was trying to be humorous that this bugs me only while i'm in the process of filling the bowls. after trying diff things and noticing they react the same way - i just thought it would be funny to propose that they are having secret feline meetings to mess with me.
the amount of time dedicated to my feline hydration research is best explained like this:
you're driving along in a good mood listening to a good song and someone pulls out in front you...you go from pulse of 70 to pulse of 142 in a microsecond and scream out "what the mother truck are you DOING you dumb son of a stitch!" while waving your fist angrily at them waiting (praying) for them to mouth something back to you so you can rachet up the blood pressure even further....
they turn off 5 seconds later and you go back to whistling your tune like it never happened. you don't dwell on it the rest of the day or lose sleep over it....but for that 1 minute in time...it dominates you.
if you actually run the guy down, you better call rick's lawyer cause i hear he's good!
I'm here at your house and I'm trying an experiment while you are at work. I removed bowls 1 and 2. Now we'll see if they drink out of bowl 3.
Post a Comment