Getting the Cat to Pay the Water Bill

I have a new cat. Actually, he's a used cat, not new, since I recently
adopted him from the animal shelter. He has been with me for a couple
weeks now, so he is pretty thoroughly familiar with his new house.

I thought he was pretty smart when I adopted him. After all, he picked
me out of quite a crowd of people looking at kitties at the shelter.
But I kept telling myself that might mean he just has good taste, not
necessarily a sign of superior intelligence. But my suspicions about
him were confirmed the other day when he learned about the kitty door
after going through it only once. This door shuts tight with a magnet
on the bottom and it always takes quite a bit of patience to teach a
cat how to use it. Not this guy. He went through it when I sat on the
other hand with catnip in hand (more about that later), and from then
on was happy to go either direction all by himself.

Well, the other day he learned how to turn on the faucet in the
bathtub. I went into the bathroom and heard water running. Sure
enough, there was a steady dribble coming out of the bathtub faucet. I
turned it off, assuming that I had inadvertently not shut the valve
all the way after taking a shower earlier in the day. But later in the
day the faucet was dripping again. And this morning I saw Mr Clever
licking from the faucet, the handle once more slightly down. (This
faucet has handles, not knobs, sticking out left and right, all he has
to do is pull down a bit on one of them to get a drink.)

I wouldn't mind if he would turn the faucet off again after he
finishes. Evidently he's not quite clever enough for that. Or maybe
he's just lazy. Maybe if I put the water bill in his name he would
show some responsibility. Wait ... can't do that, he doesn't have a
name yet.

Does anyone have any ideas how to get it through his furry little head
that leaving the water running is wasteful of resources, in addition
to being expensive?

And speaking of the catnip, this guy is a real dope fiend. He sits on
the floor in the kitchen and stares up at the cabinet where I keep it,
meowing plaintively until I give him another hit. Hope the stuff isn't
harmful.

--
Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here.

In news:ilovsvk0ot4j2u7hg58jn889dnnne1uej5@4ax.com,
Marek Williams <abc RemoveThis @example.com> composed with style:

> Does anyone have any ideas how to get it through his furry little
> head that leaving the water running is wasteful of resources, in
> addition to being expensive?
>

Some cats just like running water. I bought a Drinkwell fountain a
couple of months ago and thought it was a complete waste of money
because none of my 3 would use it (they stared at it a lot), but kept
it
clean and with fresh water none-the-less. The cats have been getting
acclimated to it lately and they drink regularly from it. Shadow used
to drink from a dripping bathtub faucet in the place I used to live so
I thought he'd love the Drinkwell. Took him a while, but he does now.