quirky
Drinking From Your Glass
Preferring fresh, moving or interesting water
Ignoring a full water bowl to dip a paw into, or drink straight from, a person's glass of water.
It is a familiar scene: a brimming water bowl sits untouched while the cat leans determinedly into its owner's glass on the table. This cheeky habit is rooted in some very real feline preferences about water.
Cats can be surprisingly particular drinkers. Water in a glass is often fresher, cooler and free of the faint bowl or food smells that collect in a dish left on the floor. A narrow glass also holds the water higher and away from whiskers, which some cats find far more comfortable than a shallow bowl that brushes their sensitive whiskers as they drink.
There is a social and curiosity element too: your glass is interesting because it is yours, and a cat that watches you drink may simply want to sample the same thing. While it is usually harmless, it can be a useful hint that a cat would drink more from a better setup — a wide, whisker-friendly bowl, a water fountain, or a couple of glasses of fresh water left in favourite spots.
🐾 Most common in
Seen in curious, confident cats of any breed, and often more common in cats who are naturally light drinkers or dislike their current bowl.