Obviously some here have severe difficulty not only grasping the
basics of the English language, but also subtleties of humor such as
irony. Anyone who could seriously consider for one minute that I'd
give a beloved pet some cyanide as a deterrent needs help - in any
number of ways!

So cats like running water? What an astonishing piece of news that is
- and so many of you took turns repeating it for good measure! I
suspected it from the start folks, it just took me a week or so to
confirm the point by catching my cat at it.

Dear sweet cybercat, what a wonderfully lucid and telling contribution
you made. Contributors such as yourself are always so fascinating,
never adding anything of significance or interest, merely affording
themselves the opportunity to vent online under the auspices of the
anonymity that cyberspace affords. Doubtless you're a spineless little
mouse who doesn't say boo to anyone under normal circumstances. So
easy to be so brazen, rude, and ignorant when you don't have to suffer
the normal repercussions such behavior would elicit in the real world,
isn't it?

As a point of fact, you neanderlithic ditziod, I've spent my entire
life around cats and grew up in a family where all our pet Siamese (as
many as a dozen at a time) slept on my bed each night in their various
positions of seniority - my favorite always slept by the crook of my
neck, a position all others aspired to and which she guarded
jealously. In adult life I've owned any number of cats and dogs, many
of them rescue efforts, and I've held various licenses in my homeland
of Australia that enabled me to rescue and hand rear anything and
everything from kangaroos, koalas, and parrots through to Kookaburras,
the latter on which I'm considered something of an expert where
feeding and rearing of juveniles is concerned.

I also had a kitten at one time with a broken leg that eventually set
me back $5,000 in vet fees for all of the various operations required
to mend, reset, and insert steel pins in a leg that continued to bow
out as the cat matured - want to guess how many people would have
baulked at such a heftly expense and simply had the cat put down?. All
of these expenses were incurred at a time when I was earning
approximately $20,000 per annum, which meant that I wiped out my
savings and went into debt for the rest.

When I shifted to the United States some years ago I spent a small
fortune transporting my numerous pets over here from Australia for the
simple reason that, as with any true animal lover, a pet to me is
something you're committed to for life, not a fashion accessory
acquired on a whim and disposed of once the novelty has worn off. When
was the last time you spent $8,000 transporting your pets from one
home to another?

I've also continued my practice over here of rescuing and paying for
the rehabilitation of wild animals I come across in need of help, and
I've paid for the veterinary bills and placement of a number of stray
cats I've found abandoned and/or injured in our neighborhood, all on a
fairly limited budget. My wife has also reached a point where she has
half jokingly threatened to divorce me if I don't stop bringing home
every hard luck animal case I come across.

In short, sh.t for brains, I have spent a lifetime devoting my time,
money, politics and passion to the welfare and protection of far more
animals than a sanctimonious and ignorant twit like you is ever likely
to come across, let alone lift a finger towards actually helping.

What's more, cretins such as yourself, in my experience, are rarely
animal lovers in the true sense of the word. The anthropomorphic
fantasies you thrust upon your felines to compensate for barren wombs,
empty nests, and unfulfilled maternal instincts habitually blind you
to such an extent that you'll happily watch your pet cats gobble up
birds, lizards, squirrels and any other animals they can get hold of
without a thought to the pain, suffering, and ecological devastation
that can be caused by your 'little baby's' fun and games. So often the
fawning behavior meted out to the beloved pet is only matched by the
disdain and scorn for all other living things.

As for your little dig at the water fountain itself, what a superb
piece of long distance diagnosis regarding my motivations for its
ownership! Wow! New age, huh? Did you come up with that pearl of
wisdom all on your own? As a matter of fact I work from home as a
professional writer and keep the fountain on the desk as a means of
blocking out extraneous noises while I'm focusing on my work. Try it
some time, you obviously need it - though I don't think it will
contribute overmuch to your writing abilities, sad to say.

Next time someone asks a simple basic question on here, try pausing
for one minute (if that's too taxing try a few seconds instead) to
ponder whether you truly have anything of intelligence to add, or
whether you might even be able to surprise everyone by actually
offering up the desired answer. That would be a turn up for the books,
wouldn't it?

Finally, to you and the other sanctimonious cows on here who think
they have such a lock on compassion and love for cats, may I cordially
suggest you all go f.ck yourselves, engage reality, and stop hanging
around on message boards under the delusion you're ardent animal
lovers and resident cat experts based on nothing more than your
psychologically f.cked-up personalities fixating on cats as a
compensatory measure for all the numerous inadequacies in your lives?

All the best............Timbo

PS To Catnipped -  thanks for being the one individual who answered a
simple question with the basic answer required. I'll give the vinegar
a try. As I pointed out - and which others blissfully missed - I
wouldn't mind my cat drinking from the fountain if it wasn't for the
fact that her efforts are unpredictable and I often wake to find the
pump angrily sucking air. As stated, the point to the exercise is thus
to save the fountain's pump from burning out. Much as cats might
disagree they have to know the boundaries of appropriate behavior
(else we'd all let them urinate and defecate everywhere rather than
train them to use a litter tray) and in this instance my own feline
friend has to be encouraged to go looking elsewhere for her liquid
refreshment.

PPS to 'Wayofcats' - I really feel your karma washing over me, I do,
really. When I read your post I had a transcendental moment when I
felt so at one with the universe, my cat, your essential
nothingness....everything! Like, WOW man, it was just so mind blowing!
I promptly went out and purchased a lemon, some joss sticks, a
fishburger from Burger King, a pound of Jamaican hash, and a
widescreen TV for my bathroom. It made no sense to me either at the
time, but hey, what can I say, we all take the path to enlightenment
in different ways!  Thanks for sharing.