In the kitchen, there is a silver bowl. This silver bowl is refilled with fresh water every morning. This bowl sits pleasantly, unassumingly, next to a red bowl that is often filled with food. They are magical bowls of health and wellness. You would think the silver bowl is full of poison for the amount Monty will go near it.
Monty has always had a problem with water dishes. As a puppy, he was terrified of his water bowl. The first summer, he spent most of his time dehydrated. We ended up having to fed him bowls of watermelon so he would intake at least some moisture. He learned to drink water eventually, but he's never been a fan.
You see, his collar has tags on them. Those tags are metal. Those tags hang low enough that they brush the edge of the water bowl. They clink. You would think they sent electric shocks directly into the dog's brain for the amount of fear he shows about the clinking. We tried plastic bowls, but that was just a muffled, weird noise and he didn't like that much better. Finally, we covered the back of the tags with fuzzy material and that made things barely acceptable.
Upon moving into this house, Monty has discovered a new place where water is. He has been known to run from one end of the house to the other when he thinks he will have access to this water. It is magical and he is in love. No, it's not the toilet. That has clinking too. It's not the tub, it would require him to stand in water. It is the shower door.
There is a standing shower in our master bath. The door is perfectly sealed except for one tiny little corner where the plastic covers the metal. One tiny little leak. And Monty will stand there and drink all day if you let him.
Once you turn on the shower to let the water run, Monty is there for his vigil. He stands braced outside the shower door, protecting his fresh spring from anyone who might look to take it from him. He stands there lapping the entire time you're in the shower. And, when you have opened the shower door and a stream of water runs to the floor, he licks the area clean.
There is nothing quite so disconcerting as a little pink tongue poking through the bottom of the shower door while you're washing your hair.
What do we do to our dogs that make them so freaking weird? Growling at stoves, licking showers. They're weird.
ReplyDeleteHehe... this made me giggle.
ReplyDeleteLynnieC, their mother was MADISON. Which would account for a great deal. That and the fact her previous owner said she was the perfect dog for May-B because they had similar personalities.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Monty only likes warm, softened water?
ReplyDeleteHis mom likes all kinds of water. Green dugout water, lake water, sprinkler water, puddles-on-the-street water. Shower and tub water are best though. But not for drinking. Just for being in and then watching go down the drain.
She is, however, extremely phobic of the babygate.
It could be the warm water. My cat, Oskar, thinks my hot bathwater is the bomb diggety. He drinks and drinks and drinks as though he will never slake his thirst when I'm in there. Do you think the bath bubbles are bad for him?
ReplyDeletemagical bowls of health and wellness=awesomesauce.
ReplyDeleteMy dog's don't have a problem like that, but Pogo really likes ice cubes. That might be an easy way to get Monty some fluids that don't drip out of a shower.
I'm pretty sure Pogo only likes them because he thinks they're food, though.
After I have a shower, there is nothing my cat likes better than coming and pushing the knob so the water to the shower runs out the spout.
ReplyDeleteWhile Sadie likes to drink from her water bowl, she also thinks its fun to help me dry off after I've climbed out of the shower.
ReplyDeleteNo accounting for some critters.