Thread: End of our rope.

My wife and I have been working for over a *year* now to get our two 'coons to stop playing in their water dish.
This is not the usual "it's cute when they play" sort of stuff. They will take any size bowl and simply empty it out. We've gone through hundreds of dollars worth of special fountains trying to give them reasons to not cause trouble. Still they persist. It's not just the water everywhere problem. They keep getting sick. They get junk on their feet then they drag it in the water, and no amount of filtering or other stuff will keep the water clean.
Tonight James knocked over a DogIt watering dish. 1 gallon of water all over the carpet, soaked. This is the *second* time. He's figured out he can do it, now it's been two nights in a row.

We've spent so much time and done so many stupid things to try and get our cats to learn that the water is for drinking. Personally I don't care if they play in it, but they end up getting sick!

We are truly at the end of our rope on this. The cats are 2 and half years old, and even after a year of constant daily work, they will not learn to respect their water source.

It is impossible for us to even leave the house for an hour with a water dish out, because they will simply empty it out.

We need a solution for this problem that *works*. The playing in water thing is cute, but it's a major health problem, and that is where I'm simply losing it. We knew that Maine Coons played with water going into it all, but I never expected them to be so outright retarded.

Has anyone had any success in solving this sort of issue?