A cat owners’ newsletter recently informed me that cats prefer to drink running water – that they may not even drink enough to stay healthy if their only choice is to use a bowl. I decided that, before I started feeling guilty or rushed out to buy a pet drinking fountain, I’d see if it was true of our cats.

I took the pump and spout from our tabletop fountain, set them in a bowl of water on the kitchen floor, and plugged in the cord.

The sound of running water is supposed to attract cats, but neither one of them showed up. Maybe they heard, but mistook it for the coffee maker.

So I went and got Cat, Jr. He sniffed around the fountain, looked at both the water running from the spout and the water in the bowl – and started licking up water I’d spilled on the rim. Later, he was back at his regular bowl, where he could trap the water with his tongue against the side. That seems to be what’s important to him.

Next, I tried to bring in Cat, Sr., who started life feral and might remember that, back in “the wild”, running water tasted better than standing water. But it seemed what she remembered best was that I had recently taken her to the vet, then given her antibiotics. She was not letting me take her anywhere. When she finally got around to checking out the fountain on her own, she walked away without touching it.

The pet drinking fountain I mentioned was invented by a vet whose cat drank only running water and lay on the counter all day waiting for someone to turn on the faucet.

Does this tell us anything about cats in general? Only, I think, that they’re all different.