Cat Splash Fever

Occurred on January 1, 2018 / New York City, New York, USA

Info from Licensor: "Karuna is our cat. He was raised on the streets of Queens, NY until rescued by an adoption service, which is where we got him.

We trained him to use a toilet through the CitiKitty system, which uses removable rings on a circular kitty litter box. The box sits on top of the toilet seat. You start by removing the center and then work outwards until there are no rings left--just the toilet seat.

Sometimes we would flush the toilet after Karuna used it and we noticed that he was very fascinated by the water moving down. Initially, he was just frightened but after a while, he'd stay and watch it. He didn't go after it though. He stopped using the toilet after a while because our other cat stopped, and we had to buy a litter box, which he uses now.

A few years ago he started hanging out near the toilet when I was brushing my teeth. I would use dental floss and flush. That was the first time that I saw him rush to the edge of the bowl and furiously put his paws in the water.

Since then he waits until I floss my teeth and comes into the bathroom (he hears the medicine cabinet open); then he waits by the toilet; sometimes he goes for it, sometimes just watches. If we play with the lever that triggers the flushing mechanism to create some flushing sounds he becomes much more excited."