Korbens kidney diagnosis is making me realize that my fully adult cat just doesn’t know how to drink. We’ve been giving him hydration packs which we were calling Boy Gravy but have now landed on simply The Goop.
This has the positive side effect of making him realize when he’s thirsty. Because we’ve baked in a routine wherein he drinks yummy fluids. So on mornings we haven’t given him The Goop yet he’ll indicate thirst by going up to Leeloo’s bathroom water separate from the whole ass fountain they largely ignore and attempt to drink.
I say attempt because I didn’t know it was possible to be this incompetent at a basic necessity of life. First he’ll slowly lower his mouth while lapping. He usually hits the rim of the glass and assume he’s drinking. He licks the rim for an embarrassing amount of time before he realizes that glass is not in fact water even though it’s smooth and cold.
So he’ll lower his mouth more and inevitably get water up his nose by going too far. Then he’ll lap determinedly at the water, repeatedly get more water up his nose because he can’t sense the waterline, then give up on the whole affair.
My theory as to why The Goop is permissible is that the viscosity is higher than water, but he still drinks it like a freak, lapping determinedly at the very far edge of the bowl until he’s made a hole in the goop. Then we spin the fucking bowl for him to sense there’s still yummy goop and he readjusts to keep lapping at the empty spot he’s made.
