Templeton had a drinking problem. Now his problem wasn’t getting loaded up on hooch while scatting about town, but more that he didn’t drink as much water as he should.

He didn’t like wet food, so encouraging him to drink more water was the only way to keep him properly hydrated. We tried several approaches, starting with a drinking fountain that kept the water circulated and aerated, but he wasn’t too impressed. We started keeping a water bowl on each floor and that certainly helped.

There were two approaches that worked really well, once I realized that Templeton liked to drink water from just about anywhere but where he thought he was supposed to. One was to fill his water bowl and hold it out for him near the sink, he’d hop up away from Scout’s affections and drink heartily. Sometimes instead of a bowl, I’d cup my hands in the sink and he’d drink quickly before the water seeped through my fingers.

My master stroke, however, was getting him to drink during his supervised outdoor visits. I always brought out a bowl of water with me, but Templeton always went to drink out of the nasty old water that I left out for the birds in an old flower pot base.

After fruitless efforts to try and get him to drink the fresh water in the water bowl, I started cleaning out the bird bowl first and filling it with fresh water, then putting it back for Templeton. He was aware of the ruse but willing to live with it, and always drank from it as shown here.