help with strange behavior

I hope someone has some insight into my cat's behavior. We found her in our shed a few months ago...of course we fed her and gave her a bed. We think she may be older because she seems to have some hearing and sight difficulty. We are now keeping her in our garage until we get her to the vet. We plan on bringing her into the house once she is tested and spayed etc.

Our problem: Callie plays in her water...she puts her paws in it, splashes most of it out while she is attempting to drink...there is constantly water all over the garage floor. She loves water, and would probably chioose it over food. We will be getting blood work done to make sure there are no renal problems, but I think the water play is more of a behavioral problem. I thought maybe she was feeling to make sure it is water, but she continues to do it after drinking.

We are quite leary of bringing her into our home where there is always fresh water for our dog and cats. All of my other cats are very well behaved and I have not had one problem with them.

Please, can someone help...
Thanks,
Sandy

Lots of cats do that, and one way to fix it is to get one of those new fountain type of water 'dispensers' (pet stores) because they like the idea of running water and the holder provides that (but not the mess). You could also bring her to the kitchen sink sometimes, turn the water on at a trickle and see if she likes to play with that - many cats drink off their paws rather than straight out of the bowl... it's partly a grooming thing too I think.

I had a cat that loved to sit on the edge of the tub and play in the water, while I bathed. once in a while he'd fall in and swim

Thank you both for your input. I also have a cat that dunks her paw in water and then licks it. Callie actually puts her paw in the water and pushes all the water out of the bowl. I have tried large continuous water dispenser, heavy bowls, anchoring the bowls between bricks, and she still manages to
move the bowls and splash out all the water. I thought maybe it was an OCD
type of thing.
Sandy

Maybe you could try putting the bowls inside of rubbermaid containers? A type with lower sides, like a sweater box. That way if she spills it out it just goes in the tub.

As long as you can keep her from spilling the water out onto the floor (and potentially making a hazardous puddle for you), I say let her play. At least you know she's probably drinking well.

My cats do that . I started to give them filtered water because I was afraid they didn't like the taste of the water out of the tap. I also put their bowl inside a tupperware container so if they start to play it just splashes in the other dish