Automatic Kitty

Here is our lovely kitty.

 

You might not be able to tell just by looking at her, but she is sitting there waiting for someone to turn the faucet on to a gentle stream of cool, fresh water. She has a bowl of water, but that is for lame-os. She’s vastly prefer fresh-flowing water. Now, the annoying thing about this is that of course you can’t just leave the faucet running, so she needs to request the water with some insistent meowing, and then you have to wait until she’s had her fill. Also, she prefers privacy. So it’s better if you turn on the faucet and wait right outside the door until she’s finished. It’s not quite as subservient as following her around the neighborhood to pick up her poop, but it’s close. Also, it can be downright annoying if you are running to actually use the bathroom or take a shower, and then Isis will show up and meow meaningfully and you either have to help her out or listen to her request assistance the entire time you’re doing whatever you’re doing. And also she would prefer if you did not turn on the water for her and then sit on the toilet yourself. That’s just icky. She has standards.

So a while ago we got this fabulous kitty water fountain (click the image for an Amazon link).

 

 

 

She was definitely wary of it at first, but after several days of persuasion (rubbing it against some of her fur to make it familiar, dropping treats nearby, and firmly refusing to turn on the faucet), she’s acclimated to it and she likes it. I think it’s definitely increased her water intake.

After the success of the fountain, I decided that we should get an automatic feeder, too. This was partly for Isis and partly for Cute W. Isis enjoys an early breakfast (5:30 or 6 am is good for her), and so she’ll start asking for it early. One of my main talents in life is the ability to maintain a state of sleep, so if she starts meowing for breakfast, I can take a pillow and press it over my head without ever reaching consciousness and, hooray for me, I don’t even know it’s happening. Cute W, however, is a light sleeper, and even if he tried to ignore the meowing, he worries about the girls waking up.

 

The feeder is awesome. It rotates at a pre-set time, which means that Isis gets some nice canned food at 5:30 am, which makes her happy. Isis is getting older now. If I say that in front of the girls, they act outraged. “She’s not old! She’s just getting started! She’s vibrant!” Our best estimate is that she’s about J’s age, 13. So apparently one of the things that happens as cats get older is they start asking for food and water more frequently. Even worse, sometimes they’ll just start yowling, like they’re not sure where their human is, and they’re freaked out. Now that we have plentiful water and she gets a little bedtime snack as I’m setting up the early morning breakfast, she is definitely mellower, which is better for everyone. Really, if you’ve got a pet who might like one of these, I love-love-love them.