Who said domestic cats are scared of water?

It is a fallacy that domestic cats don’t like water or that they are scared of it. We don’t need the video below to support this argument but it makes a nice video nonetheless. It depends upon the individual cat as to whether they like to get into water, dislike water or run away from it. It’s just a personal thing although it is said that the wild cat hybrids like to get into the shower with you. By and large domestic cats don’t dislike or like water. They put up with it. Although most domestic cats actively dislike being immersed in water. But it is exceptional for a cat to experience it. They don’t need to be bathed as they are excellent self-groomers. Bathing cats as a substitute to a cat grooming herself if worse than pointless. It removes the cat’s oils and leaves their skin dry. Cats who are friendly may fail to recognise a bathed cat because her scent has been removed.

For example, my cat goes out in the rain without too much bother. He doesn’t particularly want to go out in it but if he is out there and it rains he just gets on with things. This is to be expected. But you’ll see headlines all over the Internet asking why domestic cats literally hate water. It’s just not true. Hate is too strong a word. There is a misapprehension about the domestic cat’s general attitude towards water.

Please remember that videos such as the one above sometimes stop working over a period of time for reasons beyond my control. If that has happened I apologise.

There are obviously occasions when bathing a domestic cat is sensible such as when a stray cat has been rescued from the street and is covered in fleas and is to be cleaned up in preparation for any veterinary treatment, which is non-urgent. Purebred show cats are bathed, dusted (talcum powder for white cats) and groomed with a brush to make them look pretty for a cat show. But the average domestic gas should be left well alone when it comes to bathing.