People keep sending me animal intelligence links, but I haven’t found the time to post them. Instead, here I am on a Saturday morning posting a video of a cat in a bathtub.
Have you ever seen such behavior? Most of my cats hate water. I have one, Max, who will drink from the faucet, and who likes to walk around the edge of the tub while I’m bathing, but he’d never do anything like this. Strange little kitten.
There are certain breeds that love water (such as Turkish Vans, Maine Coons or Bengals). Maybe this is one of them, or is descended from one of those types.
This might be of interest (though you’ve probably seen it already):
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognition-animal/
I had a cat who would jump in the bathtub when I would take a bath. (Funny thing– he even looks like the cat in the video.) He did NOT like water, but he was intrigued by it. He acted like it was a mystery that he needed to get to the bottom of, this mystery of LIQUIDS.
I had this one plastic souvenir cup that was double-walled, with a thin layer of colored liquid on the inside. Thus, it always looked full, but it was just an illusion caused by the liquid in between the walls. He would spend hours knocking the cup around and sticking his paw inside, trying to figure out where the water was.
If you have some intelligent pet stories send them to http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/user-generated/animal-minds/animal-minds.html
National Geographic Magazine’s site is looking for pictures and stories of smart pets =)
My kitten does that all the time. While I’m washing the dishes- she jumps in. While I’m taking a shower, she feels as if she might need one too, and walks right in. While I’m in the bath tub, she swims like an athlete. When I have to go to the bathroom, she tries to follow, but that’s my limit.
I agree with Sara: This kitten is clearly exploring the nature of water. He seems most interested in the surface of the water, probably intrigued by the idea that water clearly has an edge, a surface, and yet he can move freely through it.
I once looked after a cat in my home for three weeks. At that time my washing machine was not plumbed into the pipes and I had to let out the water from the machine into the bath, which was right next to it. The cat, Eli, began to be very interested in the water coming out of the pipe and would jump up on to the side of the bath as soon as he heard the machine starting up so he could play with the water as it spurted out. I was quite amazed that he so clearly identified the sound of the machine starting, with the fun he was going to have with the water.