Shelter Cat Turns On Faucet, Causes $5k in Flood Damage

[freeplessinseattle]

"At first, the Florida Humane Society in Pompano Beach thought the serious flooding that caused at least $5,000 in damage originated from a burst pipe. Upon further inspection, employees realized that it was one of the cats that had turned on a sink faucet that was left running for about 17 hours.

The water caused serious flooding in the building, seeping into walls and several other rooms, and the Humane Society is now seeking donations to help replace countertops, walls and cabinets that need to be torn down due to mold.

In addition, food, cat litter and other items in storage were ruined from the running water.
.......

It is unclear which cat is the culprit, but shelter employees have their suspicions about which one was responsible for flipping the switch, WPLG reported"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/shelter-cats-turn-sink-faucet-5k-damage-florida/story?id=40192684

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Some cats really do prefer running water.

[Little Tich]

2. Oops! n/t

[Cirque du So-What]

3. I saw a thread the other day

documenting the antics of the 'World's Most Mischievous Cat.' Looks like there's a contender.

[Aerows]

12. Mine is mad because it is pouring rain outside

and she has to settle for snacking inside. She would float away with the rain going on around here if I let her loose. I love her too much to do that, though

[Aerows]

4. My dudette is the smartest feline

on the planet. She would likely turn the water off.

I didn't adopt her, she adopted me.

[JonathanRackham]

5. Radical felines!

I still love em all.

[Javaman]

6. this same exact thing happened to a friend of mine...

he had a cat that was fascinated with the handle on his faucet.

He had a ground floor apartment luckily.

He left for work.

He came home to a flooded apartment.

He noticed something was wrong when he saw water trickling from the front door.

When he opened it about a foot of water gushed out the door.

He changed all the knobs on all the faucets in the house.

[freeplessinseattle]

10. I was thinking, this must have happened before

To someone who didn't merit a newstory. Bet the kitty was pretty freaked by the water all over, and wondered what the hell happened!

[leeroysphitz]

7. Some cats just want to watch the world burn... n/t

[LisaL]

8. They had a sink in a cat room and the cats were running lose?

Lets hope they don't get a stove for their cat room.

[meow2u3]

9. Human mistake #1: a faucet with a long handle

Solution: change the knobs on the faucet to round ones that cats cannot turn on.

[Aerows]

11. Same with door handles.

Enterprising felines can get into all sorts of trouble if they have some leverage.

[freeplessinseattle]

13. When I was a kid my mom was getting freaked out

by the inner garage door handle slowly turning partway over and over, thinking maybe it was an intruder, but once she heard a meow realized it was just our clever girl cat!

[Aerows]

15. I'm pretty sure mine

could crack a safe if there was catnip in it. Or the tuna treats. She defines enterprising.

I love her dearly, but she is always getting into trouble.

[Lucinda]

19. We have a new little dude about 9 weeks old. He is already

WAY to smart for his own good. He watches e v e r y t h i n g. He's gonna be a handful...

[meow2u3]

14. That had to be one smart cat

who turned on the faucet. The shelter needs to cat proof their sinks, something they haven't seemed to think through.

[Aerows]

16. Mine is too smart

for her own good!

[rug]

17. .

[Lucinda]

18. Kitty told you not to put his water bowl by the food bowl!

Many will not drink water if it's by their food bowl and get quite adept at turning on faucets...

[pinboy3niner]

20. That Darn Cat!

Wasn't that the title of a movie or something?

[Monk06]

21. Looks like the cat came back

[csziggy]

22. I have a horse that will do that - turn the water on full

Any pasture she's kept in, we have to take the handles off the spigots or she will turn them on full blast. The only damage is that our electric bill (we're on a well) will go way up and we'll have low water pressure inside the house until we find the gushing spigot and turn it off.

While we were building the house, one of the workmen noticed that the spigot in the pasture didn't have a handle. He considerately brought one out and installed it without asking about it. The next morning when he got to the worksite, the spigot was going full out - he accused the painters of not turning it off. I heard them yelling at each other, came out and solved the problem.

That horse likes to stick her head under the flowing water - if she can't do it with a running flow, she will stick her head into the water trough up to her ears and shake it back and forth. She's been known to dump half the water out of the trough this way...

[pinboy3niner]

23. A horse is a horse of course, of course

And hard to blame yours for being smart enough to know how to get what she wants.

[csziggy]

24. She comes from a line of smart horses

She's sixth generation bred and born on my farm. Her grandsire was the smartest horse I ever owned. To keep him out of trouble we gave him a fifty five gallon plastic barrel to play with. He'd spin it around, turn it up on end, roll it uphill just so he'd have the fun of chasing it back downhill.

Before we got him the barrel he spent his nights checking the boards on the fence in his paddock. He'd walk from section to section, grab each board with his teeth and shake it. If it felt loose, he'd work on it until it came loose. During the time before the barrel there was not one morning without at least one board down, often two or three of them. He wasn't trying to get out - he was just bored and looking for something to do.

When he went to the trainer, they had road cones to use to make patterns to work the horses around. He'd spend his off time carrying the cones around, rearranging them. One morning the trainer came out to find all the cones in one corner of the paddock; another morning they were all in a ground on the other side of the fence. Another day they were in a big circle in the middle of the field.

He was a fun horse to work with, seldom needed to shown what we wanted twice. He ended up working cattle in Idaho, a long way from his Florida birth home.

[womanofthehills]

25. A raven turned on my bathroom faucet - standing on the faucets to look in the mirror

I have a solar water pump and a large holding tank. He drained my tank empty - a big drag because my solar pump only pumps about a gallon a minute.

Because I live way out in the country, I was leaving doors open for my pets to go in and out but I had to stop that because a raven started coming in. Ravens make a mess - they will take every little thing and throw it around. They slobber up mirrors big time.

[csziggy]

29. Oh - that would be seriously inconvenient!

We have enough trouble with the wrens if we leave the doors open. We collect surface finds of bits of pottery and glass that have been left on the farm over the last hundred years. As we find them we put them on a shelf next to the back door. This past spring the wrens were coming in, picking up the bits and pieces and trying to fly off with them.

My husband kept hearing this "tink, tink" noise and saw a wren flying off. He found some pieces right under the shelf. Later I found others on the carport outside. Some of those pieces had to weigh nearly as much as those little wrens - probably why they didn't make it far with them.

I never thought wrens would collect shiny objects!

[LoveMyCali]

26. So no one was around

to see or hear this water for 17 hours?

[freeplessinseattle]

27. The link explains they are closed Tues and Wed. nt

[raven mad]

28. My cats all know how to do this.

But we got an electric fountain that circulates the water, providing "gurgles" and fresher-tasting water. Yep, my cats have a drinking problem............ LOL~

http://www.petfountain.com/