As usual, news media gets it wrong when it comes to cat behaviour. This news website (Newsweek) describes this ginger tabby cat’s behaviour as ‘bizarre’ but it simply isn’t. Perhaps it’s more bizarre for his female caregiver to take a phone into the shower!
But the reason why she took it there was to video her cat squeezing through the shower door. She knew that he would do it and therefore she prepared for that moment by taking her phone into the shower. And she knew he would do it because he’s done it before over and over again because he has a very close relationship with his caregiver and he wants to be next to her.
And showers smell especially nice to a cat when their caregiver is in it as body odours are enhanced.
And the desire to be next to her, wherever she is, trumps getting wet. This cat doesn’t mine being “rained” on. Some cats really don’t mind getting wet. They might not like it that much but they put up with it. It doesn’t bother them too much.
There is a misconception on the Internet promulgated by countless numbers of websites that domestic cats literally hate water. They don’t literally hate water. Anyway, it varies between cats. Cats are individuals. They have their own temperaments. Their own likes and dislikes.
My cat walks around in pouring rain sometimes. When he comes and I have to dry him off. He’s got used to it. After all, the domestic cat is a domesticated wildcat. In the wild, wildcats have to put up with rain from time to time and this inherited ability has been handed down over the eons to the domestic cat.
So, let’s not get too excited about this video. It’s all fairly normal actually but I do get a little bit irritated by people carrying their phone everywhere and videoing everything. Why do we have to upload every experience in our lives to the Internet to be shared with other people on social media? It’s become obsessive. Where is the privacy? And social media users sometimes complain about comments.
One last point, I expect that the woman turned off her shower immediately after she stopped videoing her cat. This was a planned bit of footage. It was predictable and I suppose good luck to the girl but it’s a bit tiresome to see every aspect of one’s life captured on video and discussed on social media.
