(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Caturday Pootie Diary: Ghost in the drinking machine [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-14 “Human,” Freddie said, firmly. “Are you going to make me drink from the toilet?” “What? No! Don’t do that!” “My water dish is gone!” he cried. Since it got hot this summer, we added an extra water bowl for him in the hallway outside the downstairs bathroom. It’s a weird place for a bowl of water, but it worked for us. I shook my head. “I replaced it with a water fountain. All the internet says cats prefer fresh, running water.” “Are you talking about that box thing?” “Yeah — it’s full of water for you to drink,” I said, picking up my glass of tea. “It’s evil,” he said, darkly. A gentle reminder of how we do things: 🐱🐶🐦 Do not troll the diary. If you hate pootie diaries, leave now. No harm, no foul. Please do share pics of your fur kids! If you have health/behavior issues with your pets, feel free to bring it to the community. Pooties are cats; Woozles are dogs. Birds... are birds! Peeps are people. Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. If you’re having “issues” with another Kossack, keep it “out there.” This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly. There are some pics we never post: snakes, creepy crawlies, any and all photos that depict or encourage human cruelty toward animals. These are considered “out of bounds” and will not be tolerated. If we alert you to it, please remember that we do have phobic peeps who react strongly to them. If you keep posting banned pics...well then...the Tigress will have to take matters in hand. Or, paw. I almost choked on my iced tea. “What?” I coughed. “It’s evil,” he said again, not elaborating. “It’s a water fountain. It’s full of filtered water for you to drink.” “It starts moving when I walk by it.” I suddenly understood. “It’s motion activated. It turns on when you get close so you can have moving water without draining the batteries too much.” “It’s possessed by water demons.” “I don’t think that’s a thing,” I said. He nodded, insistant. “Water demons are terrible. They get all over your fur and you shake to get them off, but you’re still wet and you have to groom for hours to get dry.” “That’s not a demon,” I said, petting him soothingly. “That’s just water. That’s just wet fur.” “It’s evil.” I sighed. “You need to drink water. It’s good for you.” “I drink water,” he agreed. “But not from a box that spits water if you get too close.” “Would you prefer I turn it on all the time? It doesn’t have to be motion activated.” “Just put the bowl back,” he said, as if it were just that simple. “I’d rather you drink from the device made for that purpose that was not free.” We were at an impasse, and we sat in silence to think about it. That was when we heard it; running water, coming from the hallway. “That’s weird,” I said. “We’re both in here.” “It’s evil.” I stood and walked into the hallway, Freddie trailing me by a cautious foot or so. There was no one there. But the motion activated fountain was running. “Huh,” I said. “It’s brand new, so it can’t be broken already.” “It’s brand new possessed,” Freddie said, hiding behind my legs. “Ridiculous,” I said, watching it switch off again. I looked down at Freddie. “It’ll be off for at least five minutes,” I explained. “Then the motion activation will switch back on again.” I turned back toward the family room, Freddie keeping me between him and the fountain. I had taken not two steps when I heard the fountain switch on again. Freddie gasped. “It’s not evil,” I said before he could talk. “It might be defective.” “We aren’t close to it! You said we had to be close to it!” “It’s range of motion detection is not very long,” I murmured. “It shouldn’t be sensing us from here.” It turned off again, the water going still and the motor going quiet. “Well, it’s off now,” I said, deciding ignoring the problem was the best course. “Let’s go watch the bird feeder.” He turned and ran into the family room. I followed, not running, but not lingering either. Freddie chattered softly at the bird in the feeder from the safety of my lap. It was a little too warm for cuddles, but we both needed the comfort. From the hallway, we could hear the sound of running water, the fountain switching on again. “Do you see the birds?” I asked, desperate to ignore what I was hearing. Despite my best attempts, the hair on my arms was standing straight up. It switched off. I held my breath, listening hard for footsteps. Something had to be triggering the motion activation. The fountain turned on. “Do you smell anything?” I asked, quietly. “Is there something in the hallway?” He lifted his nose into the air, flaring is nostrils. After a moment, he opened his mouth too. “Anything?” I asked. He lowered his chin. “No.” The fountain turned off. “Could it be the thing on the stairs?” I wondered. Freddie turned his head in that direction, then looked back at me. “It’s not that,” he said. “Maybe it’s just a robber,” I said. “I’d smell a human.” My shoulders dropped. “Right.” The fountain turned on. “Who’s there?!” Freddie yelled. “Freddie!” I whisper-screamed. Nothing answered. The fountain turned off. I took a deep breath and stood up. “I’m going to look,” I said. We slowly crept toward the hallway, Freddie staying close, but behind me. As we reached the edge of the hallway, we heard the fountain switch on again. I stopped and pressed my body to the wall that separated the family room from the hallway. Carefully, I leaned forward, moving my head past the wall so I could see into the hallway. There was something there, but it moved quickly into the laundry room. Deciding the bandaid approach was best, I ran the three steps down the hall and stopped in front of the entrance to the laundry room. “Ceiling cat!” Freddie swore. I said something much more R-rated. “I got rid of it!” I said, staring at my old vacuum cleaner. “I got rid of it last year!” “It’s evil!” Freddie wailed. The fountain behind us switched on again. “That’s evil too!” he yelled. “That’s motion activated,” I said again, reaching for the vacuum cleaner handle. “This might actually be evil.” I dragged it to the door that led to the garage, determined to put it back in the trash where it belonged. I opened the door and turned to look at Freddie. “Drink some water!” I demanded. Happy Caturday, Peeps! This is a little bit of a continuation of stories from previous Octobers, namely this one and this one and this one. Anyway you should lock the closet where you keep your vacuum. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/14/2199310/-Caturday-Pootie-Diary-Ghost-in-the-drinking-machine?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/