Daifoo and Water (2004-06-11)
Daifoo has a love-hate relationship with water.
On the one hand, he loathes and dreads having a bath. Every
time I start to draw water in the tub and calls "Bath time for you", he
will crouch under the table looking totally frightened. Then when
he sees me approach him, he will stealthily back out from under his
hiding place, hunch his back, lower his tail to the floor and flee
upstairs. Does he think that posture make him less visible to
me? When I finally pull him out under the coffee table in the
tatami room, he will start protesting at the top of his voice. He
wriggles in my arms and howls all the way to the bathroom and will not
stop till he's free, which is when the bath is over. If people on
the streets can hear him squeal, they will think a cat is being
murdered in our apartment. Washing him is a two-man job. While I
pin Daifoo down in the tub and struggle to wash and lather him with
basically one free hand, KL has to stand guard by the door with a towel
ready. There have been times when Daifoo escaped from my grip and
dashed out into every corner of the apartment dripping wet with
soap. We do not want that to happen ever again. Daifoo
hates being bathed, that is a fact.
But on the other hand, he loves playing with water! I can no
longer place his water bowl beside his food bowl because he likes to
use his cupped paw and out-stretched claws to scoop water onto the
floor and drinks from there. Sometimes he'll just do that without
drinking at all. Therefore I put his water bowl in the bathroom
now where I don't have to clean up the mess. And this
strange behavior is not limited to small bowls. At times when I
haven't pulled the toilet door shut, he will sneak into it and splash
water all over the place making a mess of himself and in the
toilet. If I leave a glass of water out long enough for him to
find out, he'll try to scoop the water out and drink from his cupped
paw. His obsession with removing water from a receptacle has
reached a pathological level.
Daifoo also likes running water. Many times when he hears me
use the bathroom sink, he will jump up and gobble water straight from
the tap with his
hind legs standing on the rim of the bathtub. One of his
favorite games is to play catch with running water. I would
dangle
the shower hose on the floor with water trickling from it which
runs into the shallow groove by the tub. He would go all crazy
and try to catch the water midway in the groove using a cupped
paw. Eventually he'll get tired and just plop onto the wet floor
never leaving his sight on the shower faucet.
During summer, he loves to take a nap in a very wet tub. As
soon as KL goes into the bathroom to take a shower, Daifoo will wait
patiently outside on the mat. But he will surely let KL know if
he's taking too long (in cat's time) by meowing incessantly. The
moment KL opens the door, he will race into the bathroom, laps up any
puddles of water on the floor and jumps into the tub to sleep. By
the time he decides to get up, he will be wet all over and leave a
trail of wet paw prints on the floor.
How does a cat be so
hooked on playing with water yet so petrified of a bath? This is
feline polarization.
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