ABC News have a headline which states that a cat or cats caused $5,000 worth of flood damage to a Florida Humane Society shelter because it has been decided that one of the cats turned on a faucet (tap) which was then left running for about 17 hours resulting in massive flooding throughout the shelter causing extensive damage to the fabric of the building and cat litter, food and other items in storage throughout the shelter.
That’s the story. A cat or cats turned on a faucet and the water went running out throughout the shelter. I don’t understand this and I hope that somebody can explain it to me.
All faucets are above sinks, basins, baths or some other receptacle which collects the water and if not there will always be a drain outlet. At the base of any receptacle there is an outlet. This is the known norm. I don’t need to describe this but I will just for the sake of complete clarity. If a faucet is left on then the water would go straight out of the sink to the drain. If that keeps on going for 17 hours the only damage that you are going to do is to your wallet in terms of the water bill.
Therefore, I have to conclude that somebody had blocked up the outlet to the sink. Or something was in the sink which blocked it or the outlet was plugged in the usual way. Or another scenario is that the drain could not accommodate the flow of water. In all scenarios only a human could have produced this result. It’s human error.
In addition, if a cat can turn on a faucet it must mean the faucet was turned off quite lightly. Or was this faucet some sort of electronic button rather than a conventional faucet? That sort of button could be operated by a cat but we still left with the problem as to why the water did not run away down a drain. Perhaps the outlet was not blocked but the drain below the sink was blocked. In either case we are looking at human error again.
I have a gut feeling that the cat is the fall guy in this story or perhaps the story was made up to include a cat as the central player because to me it looks more likely that tap was left on by a human and the sink was blocked or worse: this is sabotage by a disgruntled employee. Is that too far fetched? Probably.
Now, I want somebody to correct me because clearly I’ve missed something, or have I?
Workers at the shelter have suspicions who the cat culprit is. Poor little fella. Cats are innocent until proven guilty. Remember that! 🙂 One last point. The cats are fine. No cats where hurt.
Very good theories, Michael.
I don’t believe, for one minute, that any cat would be capable of causing such a thing.
Not even my smartest and most inquisitive cat could accomplish that.
Seventeen hours is a long time. What came, first, in my mind was that cats would have to be free-roaming and unattended inside the building. Not a chance in the world!
Somebody walked off and left the water running. And blamed the cat.
If it were really a cat, they should’ve made a You Tube video – it’d have millions of views and they could’ve made up some money lost. The cat would’ve been a star. Maybe they should still try. Such a video might go viral.
It is of course a human error because as you said – if there is no blockage in pipes, there would be no issues even if a cat opened a faucet which is doubtful. Kind of reminds me when a friend had her friend staying in her home to cat sit two cats while she was away. When she got back, the guy said that the cats broke two wine glasses. That was interesting since a) the glasses were left in closed cabinets. b) this had never happened before even when she left the glasses on a counter top. There was no explanation as to how the cats broke the glasses.
Great. I am pleased we think alike on this.