My cat taught me I was filling the water bowl wrong after 4 years

My cat Miso kept knocking over her water bowl every single day and I thought she was just being a jerk. Then my sister visited from Portland and watched her do it, said "she's trying to tell you the bowl is too deep, cats hate when their whiskers touch the sides." I swapped to a wide shallow dish from the dollar store two weeks ago and she hasn't tipped it once. Anyone else had a pet basically give them a critique on their setup like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

sean78223d ago

Wait, did your sister just casually drop cat whisker science on you like it was nothing?

the_stella22d ago

Nah but think about this - cats can sense earthquakes before they hit. My buddy's cat went nuts fifteen minutes before that big one in Cali last year. Whiskers are connected to their nervous system way deeper than we realize. So when your sister drops that science, it's not just about measuring gaps. Those whiskers are picking up vibrations in the floor, air pressure changes, all sorts of stuff we can't feel. Cats are basically walking seismic monitors with fur.

drew_bennett2423d ago

Read somewhere they use them like a tape measure to fit through tight spaces, @sean782.

cole99422d agoProlific Poster

Had a similar thing happen with my own sister a few years back. She was a vet tech at the time and just casually dropped that cat whiskers have blood vessels and nerves at the base, so they're basically like fingertips. Blew my mind because I'd always assumed they were just stiff hairs. Made me realize how much we miss when we just look at pets and don't really see them. Now I catch myself watching my neighbor's cat squeeze through the fence and actually understanding what those whiskers are doing. Still weird getting schooled by a sibling over something so random, but hey, free education.