History Main / CatsHateWater

[[caption-width:350:BigNo!!!]]]

* In the french game ''Cats!'' (where [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin cats]]) hydrophile cats are considered ''freaks''.

* YouTube: Many videos, including [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9QwK5EHSmg this one]]/

in the video game ''SpongeBobSquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom'', it's really some

*** No, [s]he means the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_cat Swamp Cat] which lives in part in Russia. In a very small part, that is.

* Tigra, a female cat woman of the {{Avengers}} hates water because of her feline body.

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Cats dislike water and avoid it whenever possible. It's their WeaksauceWeakness

As far as TruthInTelevision goes, [[YourMileageMayVary your kitties may vary]], some actually ''do'' like water.

* [[BittersweetCandyBowl Lucy]] is a cat that can be [[ActionGirl tough]] in pretty bad situations. Only [[TheOphelia sometimes]], and when she [[WeaksauceWeakness sees too much water near her]] can do much.

[[quoteright:350:[[LOLCats http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/funny-pictures-cat-scared-sink-water1.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:WillSmith's Cat]]

*** Fun fact: The above is all wrong. House cats are ''Felis sylvestris'', which means "forest cat", for a reason. Their closest relatives live in scrub and bushlands, not deserts. Besides, many desert animals have no fear of water, so the explanation doesn't even work. To my knowledge, there's no well-evidenced explanation for this aspect of cat behavior. It's been suggested that water disrupts the oils on the cat's fur, but I can't find any sources demonstrating this explanation is any more randomly-created-by-armchair-experts than any other random reason someone might come up with.

* For Streaky the Super Cat, an [[AnimalSuperheroes Animal Superhero]] in the {{Superman}} comics, water serves as a literal Kyptonite.

* One ''LooneyTunes'' cartoon features a cat trying to eat a goldfish despite his fear of water. After being trapped in a flooded shower stall, he not only overcomes his fear, but he also starts sleeping inside a fishbowl.

As far as TruthInTelevision goes, [[YourMileageMayVary your kitties may vary]].

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*Used to comedic effect in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mpfj7WAfjY this commercial]].

[[quoteright:350:[[{{Lolcats}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/funny-pictures-cat-scared-sink-water1.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:WillSmith 's Cat]]

->''To bathe a cat requires brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction - and a cat. The last ingredient is the hardest to come by.''
->-Stephen Baker

* In the ''[[SumomomoMomomo Momomo]]'' manga, the male lead uses this and other stereotypical cat habits to defeat a tiger-themed opponent.
** Which doesn't make sense, as tigers are one of the few kinds of felines that ''love'' water.

*Possibly explained in an episode of ''DarkerThanBlack''. CluelessDetective Kurosawa is afraid of cats and is able to identify the house of another cat hater by an important detail. There are lots of water bottles outside, and he explains that the reflection of light off of the water is used to keep them away.
* "[[{{Pokemon}} Meowth]] hate water, especially wet water!!"

* For Streaky the Super Cat, an [[AnimalSuperheroes Animal Superhero]] in the {{Superman}} comics, water serves as a literal Kyptonite.
* Tigra, a female cat woman of the {{Avengers}} hates water because of her feline body.

* In ''BatmanTheMovie'', Catwoman screams how cats hate water. During a fistfight, Batman is all too kind to place her cat on a Rubber Raft so as to be out of harm's way.
* Mowgli's strategy against Shere Khan in a LiveActionAdaptation of ''TheJungleBook''.
** Again, as with ''Momomo''... (Okay, I'll stop.)
* ''HomewardBound'', the cat and the dogs get separated because the cat goes to look for a way to cross the river without getting wet.
* ''StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'' The [[BizarreAlienBiology triple breasted]] [[CatGirl cat woman]] is defeated by throwing her into a ''literal'' [[IncrediblyLamePun pool table.]]

* PiersAnthony's {{Xanth}} novel ''A Spell for Chameleon''. While trying to enter the Magician Humfrey's castle, Bink comes up against a guardian Cactus Cat. He uses its fear of water to get past it.
* The cats from three of the Clans in the ''{{Warrior Cats}}'' series don't particularly like water, but they will go in the water if they have to, while the fourth Clan, [=RiverClan=], loves the water and regularly goes swimming and fishing.

* Played with in a ''{{Garfield}}'' strip. Garfield spends most of the strip playing in a sprinkler. Then Jon announces its bath time and [[HypocriticalHumor Garfield bolts away]].

* Most breeds of domestic cat do hate water, and many turn into furry cuisinarts when a bathtub full of water is threatened.
** Although YourMileageMayVary and many cats don't mind water so long as they're in control, I've had a number of friends with cats who camped the bathroom to leap up into the sink when the water was turned on or even learned to turn on the faucet so that they could bat at the water and stick their heads into it.
* Real Life Aversion: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Van Turkish Van]], also known as the 'swimming cat', who [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as their name suggests]], don't mind getting wet, and have been know to go swimming. This is explained by their silky dense water-repellent coats, which dry nearly instantly even in cold seasons.
** Russian Fishing Cats also...well, they're ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. They get in the water and fish.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyger "Toyger"]] supposedly didn't mind water, according to the breeder.
* Wild cat inversions: Tigers and jaguars LOVE water and are excellent swimmers, and jaguars are known to hunt fish (Amazonian Indians claim the jaguar uses its tail as bait, but there's no known observation of this behavior). Also, there's a smaller Asian cat species known as the fishing cat, which has webbed feet.
** Unlike tigers, lions have a large aversion to water. Presumably, this brings a lot of confusion to the poor hybrid ligers and tigons, who can't make up their mind whether to swim in joy or drown in fear.
*** Though in places like the Okavango Delta lions do swim regularly in search of prey; considering the area is pratically all covered in water during wet seasons they are pretty much forced to.
* The [[MoralEventHorizon infamous]] "cat bombs" of WorldWarII. It was suggested that, as cats hate water and always land on their feet, [[TooDumbToLive they believed strapping a cat to a bomb could guide it toward naval ships.]] Needless to say, field tests of the "idea" were a complete failure, and didn't do the cat any good either.

* ''SlyCooper 2: Band of Thieves'', the main characters plan to force the villainous tiger Rajan out of hiding by flooding his base, specifically because cats hate water. Even though tigers are one of the types that don't.
* Chen, the little nekomata {{Catgirl}} from ''TouhouProject'', is weakened by water. Not only does she hate water as a cat, but water also weakens her shikigami link with her master.

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* In ''GirlGenius'', Krosp takes the controls of their falling airship and totals it, crashing it into a hill, to avoid landing in the lake, since then he'd get wet.
** ...and that's nothing to his reaction to the sewers under Sturmhalten. Of course, having spent all his life on the Castle Wulfenbach, he didn't know what a sewer was when he went down there...
*** Well, what ''really'' bothered him about the sewer was when he fell in -- and then a Jaeger suggested he could ''lick'' himself clean....
* In ''SluggyFreelance'' even cats who are the demonic offspring of {{Satan}} don't like getting wet, particularly since it makes their cude widdle bat wings useless.

* Francine's Cat "Nemo" in ''{{Arthur}}'' was afraid of water as a result of being read TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea until she hypnotized him into thinking otherwise.
* One ''LooneyTunes'' cartoon features a cat trying to eat a goldfish despite his fear of water. After being trapped in a flooded shower stall, he not only overcomes his fear, but he also starts sleeping inside a fishbowl.
* ''CatDog''; another way Cat's a {{foil}} to his other half [[DogsAreDumb Dog]].
* There was an episode of SpongebobSquarepants where Gary the snail (which is the show's equivalant to a cat) didn't want to take a bath and Spongebob tried many ways to get him to take one. None of them worked.

* In {{The Avengers United They Stand}} Tigra revealed she has a paralyzing fear of water because she is half cat.

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*[[BittersweetCandyBowl Lucy]] is a cat that can be [[ActionGirl tough]] in pretty bad situations. Only [[TheOphelia sometimes]], and when she [[WeaksauceWeakness sees too much water near her]] can do much.

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* LOLcats:
-->''An Ceiling Cat gotted all teh waterz in ur base, An Ceiling Cat hadz dry placez cuz kittehs DO NOT WANT get wet. An Ceiling Cat called no waterz urth and waters oshun. Iz good. ''
** [[http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/11/07/funny-pictures-breakin-yur-stereotypes/ Subversion Kitteh]]

*** This troper had a cat who once fell into the bathtub. There was only 1 problem: I was in the bathtub at the time, whichw as filled with water. So much pain, and all because he slipped. It seems that if they are in control it isn't too bad, but God help you if they don't want to.