"Dirty" litterboxes and faucets

I am house sitting for a coworker until sunday, and it is proving to be a veeery interesting experience. She has four dogs, two indoor cats, two outdoor cats, four horses and two goats. One of the dogs is so old you have to MAKE him go out to potty, but one of the cats is the WEIRDEST animal I have ever seen.

His name is Baba (pronounced bay-bay) and he was a bottle baby a few years ago. He has a few very odd quirks. You have to clean his litter box several times a day. If he encounters a dirty spot when using it, he will use the floor instead. Even if it is just one poo. It is rather obnoxious, having to go check the thing all the time. To make things more fun, he ONLY drinks from the faucet. You have to leave the water running for him every few hours. With his owners, he will drink while they are there, but not for me. I have to turn it on and come back later. I have never met such a silly cat as him.
He is very confused as well, he begs to be pet, but if you try, he will most likely scratch. If he DOES let you, if you try to stop, he will scratch. I tend to go around him, lol.
Is any of this common bottle baby quirks? Or is Baba just a crazy kitty?

I am not sure what quirks would be attributable to being a bottle baby or a nursed kitten .... but one of my cats has the same "thing" for faucets.

His mother was a stray and my friend found him living with his litter mates behind a dumpster at her office. From the beginning his preference is not to drink from a bowl or standing water - but from the faucet. He looks like a gerbil with a water bottle doing this. We think it may be because as a kitten standing water was either scarce or bad and they were drinking from the roof down spout.

It does make it interesting for my guests though. He will sneak into the bathroom with them, hop onto the sink counter and stare at them as if to say "Well, come on already ...don't you know you must turn on the tap for me?"

My sister's cat has always been a "faucet drinker". My cat will only drink from a human glass on the counter. He likes the water to be very fresh. (I change it several times a day.) As for the box, I am more fussy than he is. It is a set of sifting trays, so I try to clean in when ever he uses it.

Just wondering if any of the "faucet kitty" moms have thought about getting a fountain for their cats??? It would satisfy that running water fetish and also keeps the water filtered and clean.

I have a faucet kitty. She will drink out of her bowl, but if anyone goes into the bathroom she's right there and you have to turn on the faucet for her. We all think it's adorable.

I'm glad I've never had a cat picky about the catbox. I have three now, and the boxes get thoroughly scooped every evening and that's it. There are many deposits by the time I get home from work and no one has gone outside of the box.

I guess Baba used to turn on the faucets himself too, when its the kind you push forward. I'm so glad my kittens aren't as picky as him though, that would be horrible.

Think she needs to get one of those litter boxes that cleans itself everytime the cat uses it. Very expensive though. There is one that connects up to the household sewage system. Can't remember what it's called.

Cats can be very fussy - and quirky.

Originally Posted by furrypurry

Just wondering if any of the "faucet kitty" moms have thought about getting a fountain for their cats??? It would satisfy that running water fetish and also keeps the water filtered and clean.

Click to expand...

I was wondering that the other day when this thread was started.

That and how many litter boxes does the cat in question have? If just one, that's the problem. The owners should probably add a couple more as many cats prefer to have one litter box for peeing and one for pooping.


I don't have picky cats. They'll drink water out of whatever is used for them and they have so many litter boxes to choose from that they sort that out themselves.
One of my neighbors cats does like to come over and drink from the hose when I'm watering plants, though. I carefully turn the water down and hold it out so he can drink... And I wonder why they're always over visiting me.