Hello Magazine tells us that Michelle Pfeiffer was stunned to discover that her cat drinks water using her paw. Specifically her right paw. It is as if the earth has moved off its orbit. The online newspaper paints the event as if it is the most shocking thing that has happened in history of humankind. But it's just something that is very normal. We see a lot of it.
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| Michelle Pfeiffer has just noticed that her cat uses her paws to drink water. This is her cute cat. She looks like a Ragdoll, perhaps. Her name is Bella .Screenshot from video by Michell Pfeiffer. |
And a lot of people have thrown their hat into the ring to try and figure out why domestic cats like to do this. They want to give her their valuable advice. They say that Maine Coons in particular enjoy drinking water with their paw.
I am not sure that that is correct. Individual cats because of their character might use their paw from time to time when drinking water from a bowl. The habit is not necessary breed-specific.
Enjoy doing it - inquisitive
There might be a specific reason but often times I believe that they do it because they simply prefer to drink water that way. And why not? Humans do it. When humans drink from a stream they use their hands. Admittedly humans don't have feline tongues. The tongue of a cat is designed to "pick" water up using surface tension and inertia. They don't actually scoop up the water with their cupped tongue but employ some fancy physics to get it into their mouths.
When I've seen cats drink water with their paw, I've seen a cat that is entirely healthy and normal. There is no apparent reason why they're doing it. In that case, I would say they do it because they simply want to do it. It's a variation on the usual method. This may be borne out of boredom. It makes drinking water a bit more interesting.
Other reasons
You could theorise on a range of possibilities such as the domestic cat's wildcat ancestor occasionally drinks water this way in order to test it or to be cautious about a potential predator under the water. I've heard that said before.
The classic reason is that the bowl is too small and cats don't like their whiskers brushing against the side of the bowl because they are super-sensitive. Therefore they are forced to use their paw instead. This may, indeed, be a reason.
RELATED: Why is my cat not drinking?
Stimulation
Another thing that you might notice when you see a cat using their paw like this is that they look at the water falling off it. They look at what is going on inquisitively. They seem to be interested in the way the water falls off their paw. There may be something in that. It may provide us with a hint as to what is going on in their mind.
To me, it hints at a need for stimulation. They are injecting something different into their lives and trying to stimulate their brains. They make the world more interesting around them. This is the reason why cats knock an item off a mantelpiece or a table. This is not vandalism 😉. I think drinking water with their paw has the same underlying reason as knocking objects of tables and mantelpieces.
When they knock something of a mantelpiece they watch as the item falls to the floor and bounces. They are creating something which is animated and therefore interests them. I'm driven to conclude once again that this activity originates in boredom and a lack of stimulation.
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My message to Michelle Pfeiffer is to test out that theory by playing with her cat more if she has the time; to see whether her cat stops drinking water with her right paw.
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