Pumpkin's Drinking Problem
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Life Lessons from the Cat
By Kim Johnson McGuire

Cats do not have to be shown how to have a good time, for they are unfailingly ingenious in that respect.
~James Mason

One would think my cat was born under a water sign. Pumpkin's obsession with water began at an early age. He started with sinks and worked his way up from there. That stream of running water captivated him in a way that only a cat could understand. And the love affair continues to this day. Like his counterparts in the wild, he seeks out fresh, running H2O. He will sit next to the sink and yell until I do his bidding. He not only likes to sip right from the faucet, but depending on his "cattitude" on any given day, he may prefer to simply sit and gaze at the cascading stream. When the mood strikes him, he performs the most complicated of his many sink scenarios, letting water run over his ear and the side of his furry face while he grooms his paw.

During the past few years, Pumpkin has elevated his hobby to the fine art of bathtub haunting. The tub in our house is wonderfully large and deep. He considers it his private cave and often sets up camp there. Time after time, I'll search the house for him, feeling a chill of terror: "Oh, no, he couldn't have gotten out!" At last, I peer over the edge of the tub to see him ensconced in his headquarters, staring back rebelliously, fixed in his sphinx pose. If I dare make eye contact, it's all over. He leaps up onto the edge like a crazed jack-in-the box and demands to have the water turned on. His favorite part of this routine is to stop and wait tensely like a wound-up spring until I am about to shut off the faucet. Then he swoops in to "catch" the water with his paw before it disappears. He has not yet succeeded at this, but he never tires of trying. (Keep reading)