Our youngest cat drinking from the DIY cat water fountain.
Hi Everyone: Thank you all for the continued reading and sharing of this post and the YouTube video for the past 4 years. I’m thankful that it has proven useful to quite a few people and has spurred both practical and imaginative variations. I have never sought or accepted any payment or donations for this cat fountain, but some people have offered. My position hasn’t changed, but I wanted share some good news. After 10 years of marriage, my wife and I are in the final stages of adopting a son from an international orphanage. We would most appreciate your thoughts and prayers for our son and us as soon-to-be parents to more than fur babies. If anyone would like to make a monetary donation to help us with airfare primarily or other expenses associated with adoption, below is a link to a PayPal donation account that I have set up.
PayPal Donation Link for LAB LouisianaBoy’s Adoption
A DIY cat fountain without the need for any tools, and even if you buy all the necessary parts the cost is still under $20. It is easy construction, easy cleaning, and loved by our cats. It’s just another lesson of often being simple is better.
Did you know that cats enjoy drinking fresh and moving water like that from a stream or fountain?
I actually never thought about it even though I remember how our cats used to drink from the pipes used to irrigate some of the fields. Our cats patrolled the property, and I think summoned their friends whenever a hay cutting took place to help run down the field mice. During my childhood, we often had dogs as similar as a Chihuahuas and German shepherds as house pets at the same time (raise your voice to any member of the family, and be attacked high and low by a tag team who could have won on Mid South Wrestling), but cats always stayed outdoors.
Still I’ve always loved cats, and as a kid often took a small spinning reel and rod to which I attached a small bean bag. I would practice my casting in the back yard, and the cats played for hours chasing.
I guess it was natural then when I met my future wife that she had 3 adult cats which had essentially moved with her as a student during both undergraduate and graduate school. They moved South with her when she began teaching Political Science at the same institution where I taught at the time. About a year after she moved, we began dating, and less than two years later we married. Fortunately, the cats decided to adopt me as an additional human.
Sadly, our youngest who is now 11 years old has developed kidney disease. With her increased need for water, I first learned of cat drinking fountains. Cost and perhaps more importantly the quality of the construction of the store bought varieties floored me. Seriously, many were cheap plastic and even the better ones had all these little nooks and crannies that I most certainly would not enjoy trying to clean.
I may work in the shirt and tie world today, but I’ll always feel more comfortable barefoot out in some field. Like a typical country boy experienced in irrigating the strawberry fields and doing a lot of outdoor plumbing work on some of the lines my grandfather installed generations ago for friends and neighbors, I started envisioning this rather elaborate configuration. Fortunately, my wife decided that my labor should be spent elsewhere. Actually, I probably should have said that there was a leak when she came home and saw me about to cut a hole into the wall to connect into the water pipes. She laid down the guidelines: no water self created water leaks on existing plumbing, no cutting into the walls, and no pvc pipe or other tubing on the floors.
At that point, I decided to take the historical route of my Livingston Parish past and employ the philosophy of what every boy kept in his truck to repair anything. I would use the wisdom obtained through the connect=duct tape and separate=WD 40 lessons learned as a boy and often practiced as a teenager in the fields or wherever your truck went to fish.
Now neither duct tape nor WD 40 were not used in this particular construction, but that boyhood philosophy led to a cat fountain using items already in the house and in ample supply.
No tools needed, and assembly honestly takes far less than the 10 minutes that I cited. Many people will already own most, if not all items necessary for this construction.
It’s sturdy, easy to clean, works great, and has obtained the expressed approval of wife and cats.
A little video with an assembly demonstrated is linked here or can be viewed below. As you will see and hear many, many times, it is “simply” simple.
The cost and maintenance efficiency, and perhaps most importantly the enjoyment and drinking by all of our cats has been too good for any words to effectively convey.
Please watch the video above. For more details about the parts used and construction, please click the image of the slides below to enlarge them for easier viewing.
If you have any questions, please ask.
It’s an easy, fun, and beneficial project for cats and kids of all ages.
A little video of our recent adoption from a volunteer animal rescue group. Kittens and cats need simple toys as well as lots of water. A few pieces of crumpled paper, bag of these little springs for 98 cents, and making a scratching post from spare lumber, carpet and rope will help save your furniture from unnecessary wear and destruction.
LAB Louisiana Boy 
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