Bengal

Q: I have two cats: One is about 4 years old, the other is at least 11. My younger cat has suddenly developed an obsession with swatting the water out of his water bowl. I'm not talking about gentle splashes either -- these are full-force tidal waves!

Every morning Martha, a stately Maine coon mix, sashayed across the breakfast table and made a beeline for her favorite windowsill, shedding cat hair into the butter and flinging litter granules from her long furry tail along the way. When Mitch noticed clay particles floating in his coffee mug for the third morning in a row, he erupted. “No more cats on the kitchen table!” he bellowed-and Martha seemed to get the message. But by 7:30 the next morning, Martha’s march began anew. Short of barring her from the kitchen, Mitch wondered how he could put an end to Martha’s “surface shenanigans.”