Sassy cats – Water spa edition

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Kate here today. Gracie went to the casinos again. I’m starting to worry about her. It works out since there is some technical stuff that I’m not sure she could write about without laughing her whiskers off.

Most of you know we had a new kitchen installed and it was operational within the last week or so. Whenever you upgrade, whether it’s a car or a cell phone or a kitchen (and I did all three!) there are new new cool options available. That happened with the kitchen faucet.

They make a motion faucet now. If you wave your hand on the side, the water comes on automatically. It’s really cool when you are cooking and full of meat juice or something sticky. It works well and overall I like it. The sales staff assured me that the sensor wasn’t overly sensitive so a pet wouldn’t trigger it.

Morgan: Did not, did not!

For background, three of my cats love cat grass (which is not kept on a kitchen counter). They don’t eat plants but will investigate anything that’s green just to make sure it’s not cat grass. I buy fresh basil plants occasionally because a spot of fresh in the middle of the winter is wonderful.

The new basil plant was next to the sink near the window to catch some light. (Yes you can guess what’s coming.)

In the middle of the night there was a crash, boom, bang. I’m used to noises (cats get the zoomies in the middle of the night and crash into walls) but this was serious noise so I got up to investigate. The water in the kitchen was running, the basil plant was knocked over with water everywhere and everything that had been on the counter (including my Rachel Ray oil container) was knocked over. Was this a poltergeist? Only if said poltergeist has cat nails because there was a cat nail sheath in the sink.

I would tell you my cats never go on my counters. They don’t. Honest. In the absence of absolute proof you make it up. My best guess is that either Morgan or Gus (Sasha is too chubby to jump that high and Gracie doesn’t like cat grass or counters ever) decided to investigate the green smell, triggered the water which terrified them and in their eagerness to escape knocked over everything.

Now my dilemma is whether to disconnect the sensor and use it like a regular faucet or keep greens away from it. Right now I am keeping greens away from it. For sure the cat that got terrified won’t go up again but you never know. At a minimum, I would disconnect if I was going away but we are humping through each day waiting to see if it happens again.

Gus with cat grass at the old house porch.

Who did it? My money is on Morgan but it could be Gus. If you remember last year Morgan broke her leg from a bad landing so I’m doubly concerned. Broken legs equal big vet bills.

Whenever you have pets, there are some tradeoffs. A faucet with a sensor may be one of them.

67 thoughts on “Sassy cats – Water spa edition”

  1. Oh my gosh! That must have been quite the commotion. I thought about getting that feature in the new faucet I replaced last year and then decided the one I ended up with would be just a useful and about $130 cheaper. Many congrats on surviving the kitchen project, buying a new car and cell phone. You should consider taking the rest of the year off. 😉

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  4. I would love this particular water faucet and can think of many ways it would be an improvement in my kitchen. And having a dog, I’d probably not have any evening mischief. But I sure did laugh picturing the surprise when one of your lovelies got quite a shock of unexpected water! I wonder if that will ever happen again, or lesson learned? 🙂

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  6. That picture of Morgan is priceless! My sister’s cat used to be able to turn the water on in the upstairs bathroom sink, she would paw at the faucet until it turned slightly, and then watch it drip. It was comical to watch.

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  7. But look at all of the entertainment value you got from both the faucet and the basil plant! And, as you mentioned, said cat is likely to never to do that again — so it could only possibly happen 3 more times (and really, as you so wisely implied, only 1 more time). That’s not bad odds at all! 😀

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  8. That is funny – what a trade-off you get but I’d keep the faucet as it scared the culprit and they won’t return anytime soon, even for a green plant that looks like grass. Guess since you have a ton of counter space, you get a dehydrator and make quick work of the fresh basil.

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    • 🙂 A long time ago I had a cat that once in a while jumped up on the counter but not often. She didn’t go on the table where I would chase her off. I never saw her on the table again until one day I came home from work early. I was walking up the back and there she was in all her glory, stretched out and sleeping in the middle of the table. When I put the key in the lock she scrambled.

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  15. Whichever Puss it was, had a scare. I can imagine visiting kiddies playing ‘set the tap running’.
    Sounds fun and a good thing like you say when your hands are full………………
    Glad you’re happy with the new kitchen.

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  16. I am picturing this whole fiasco. And as soon as you mentioned the motion faucet I knew some VERSION of what was coming. What happens when a cat figures out the faucet and gets addicted to it? How was that oil clean up btw? Ugh. What I am currently trying to figure out is how to knit in a house with cats!!!

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  20. My sink faucet has a touch feature but not a sensor for hand waving. When my hands are sticky or full of chicken I touch it with my arm to turn it on. And if I have it on too long it automatically shuts off. Yours probably does too. I wonder what your mom would say about all our new toys.

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    • I have to check that out. I would hope it shuts off eventually. My mom didn’t even had a microwave or use a drive-through for banking. I used to turn my old faucet on with my forearm when my hands are icky. That worked too.

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  23. We have sensor activated soap dispensers in the kitchen and bathrooms and I love them. They do occasionally have a life of their own and/or “misfire.” We gave considerable thought to a motion sensor faucet in the kitchen and thought with our propensity to “oops’ happenings we said nope. I wish you had a motion sensing camera in the kitchen so we could have seen the shenanigans! My money is on Morgan. Today I am going to buy a basil plant for our kitchen because it sounds like a lovely thing to do and I get joy from the fragrance of basil… thank you for the idea.

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    • My basil plant (which took a beating in the incident) has two good sprigs left. Today they will be gone and it will all be history. You definitely have to get accustomed to the sensor. Only time will tell. Love the auto soap though. Worst thing that could happen was a cat got a dab of soap on them.

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  28. The THOUGHT of a sensor faucet sounds great but the REALITY of it – well – not so sure. In our house there would be no cat (singular) on the counter because Ted couldn’t even FLY up there at 23 lbs. so no worries about that. It would be just kind of wondering when it would stop working – it’s kind of like fancy gadgets on cars these days….some of them are wonderful and helpful but some are unnecessary and just asking for an excuse to malfunction and make you go to the dealer. LOL Having said that I do like the idea of messy hands being able to wave in front of the faucet and make it pop on……I keep a clean washcloth by the sink for that but a “wave” under the faucet would be nice!

    Hugs, Pam

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    • It works by battery (there is a plug-in option) and will work without the sensor so we can go “regular” if necessary. Mostly I’m worried about the cats activating it. I’ve been fearful of buying leather furniture because of the cats. Trade offs but the cats are so worth it.

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  29. I have to say I hate those sensor water faucets. Several clients have them and they drive me nuts. One came on by itself when I was halfway across the kitchen. Sometimes the batteries die and they don’t come on at all. I hate relying on them when people are away, so I always move the handle to the off position! They can be handy, but I don’t trust ’em.

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    • They take getting used to. I’ve gotten my arm wet reaching past it to the window. The one we have works the regular way or by sensor. So far it only came on by mistake once and I’m sure it was a cat thing. I love it when my hands are goopy but overall it will remain to be seen. I can’t worry about a faucet when I’m grocery shopping. I also got a soap dispenser with a sensor and that I really love. No misfires.

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