Every time anyone enters the bathroom at our house, it’s cause for a big fuss. That’s because no matter what somebody’s doing in there, our cat Cole must have a part of it. If he hears someone in the bathroom, he rushes in (if the door’s open) and starts getting very vocal.
Cole isn’t the most vocal of cats, but he’s not the least either. He chirps for attention, and if there’s a bird he can see out in the yard, the whole house knows it.
But even when there’s prey he can see just beyond his reach, Cole is never as vocal as when someone enters the bathroom. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing – brushing teeth, rummaging through the medicine cabinet, hopping into the shower – if someone’s in there, Cole’s in there too, talking nonstop while he’s at it.
It’s not the bathroom itself Cole’s interested in; he doesn’t spend much time in there alone. When he’s feeling hyper he likes to rush around on the edge of the tub, relishing the rustling sounds the shower curtains make, and sometimes he uses the tub as a sort of safety base when he’s playing tag with the dog (who won’t go near it without prompting), but that’s it. No, there’s something about a human being in the bathroom that’s captured Cole’s attention.
I’ve racked my brain for what might cause Cole’s bathroom fixation, and I think I may have finally formed a decent hypothesis. Cole’s fascinated by the shower.
I know that doesn’t make sense at first: a cat, wanting to know more about the shower? However, I’ve already debunked one commonly-held misconception about cats, and that’s that they can’t get along with dogs. Now I’m going to examine another: cats and water.
I think that in this case we can use another cat axiom to help us unravel the mystery: curiosity killed the cat. Most cats might be adverse to water, but their never-ending curiosity tends to run deeper than anything else. In some cases, however, cats just don’t hate water as much as common assumptions suggest.
I know I’ve seen plenty of You Tube videos of cats taking baths in the sink or even in the shower. I can also speak to my personal experience, and that’s that both cats I’ve had love to lap up puddles of water left behind in the tub.
If someone’s in the shower Cole’s right there beside them, either standing just outside the tub or sitting on its edge and peaking in through the curtains. On a few occasions he’s even hopped into the shower; Cole does it most commonly with my husband because he is taller and blocks more of the spray (showing that Cole, despite his curiosity, isn’t one of those truly rare water-baby cats).
Still, his curiosity about the shower shows far more courage towards water than my dog displays, something I like to tease her about. Chihiro only goes near the bathtub under obvious duress, and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with swimming in a pond or creek.
My theory about the bathroom, then, is that any time someone’s in there, Cole rushes in to ask that person to please, turn on the shower, so he can further study it. Now that I think about it, he’s least vocal in the bathroom if the shower’s already in use.
I think I may have cracked it, and in so doing, have also broken up another misconception about cats. One thing’s for sure: owning a pet is always an adventure.
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