Have you ever had that experience where you're trying to do something nice for somebody, and it just turns out just the opposite? I imagine you have. I think we've all had some sort of experience, something like that.
 
Kind of an interesting/funny thing went on with my cats and I just recently…
 
I don't know if you've ever seen these, but they have these newish stone bath mat sort of things. They're made out of stone, and they absorbed the water from your shower or your bathtub very well. Unlike a rug, that kind of just absorbs the water, and sits there in its wet saturation, these stone bath mats actually soak it all up. And, BAM, it’s all gone. …They work really well.
 
Anyway, and in any case, I thought it would be a great idea to get a smaller version of one of those and put it under my cat's water bowls. That way it would keep things cleaner, and if they spilled some water, which they kind of tend to do sometimes, as my one cat likes to put her paws in the water, and play around with it before she drinks, the water wouldn't just build up on the floor.
 
So, I ordered it from Amazon. It arrived. And, I put it into place. All good.
 
The thing was, and I luckily noticed this about a day and a half deep into it being there, is that the water wasn't going down as much as it usually does. My two cats tend to drink a lot of water. And, that's a good thing as you want your cats to be very hydrated.
 
Anyway, I made a mental note in my mind. I mentioned it to my lady, and she said she didn't really think anything was going on. But me, the one who maintains the cat's water and food and all that sort of stuff, noticed something was not quite right.
 
Last night, in the evening, I filled up the water bowls and took a very clear note at to where they were in terms of their water level. I said to her, and I said to myself, that if they don't go down very much by the morning, I'm going to have to move the stone bath mat.
 
Then, last night, I hear my one cat being very vocal all night. He was walking around meowing, saying what to whom, I had no idea? But, he was definitely saying something.
 
This morning, I get up, and I noticed the water hasn't really gone down at all. So, I pulled the stone bath mat. My one cat immediately jumps down off the bathroom counter and runs to the water and starts drinking. Same water bowl, same location, but for some reason he just refused to drink water when the water bowl was sitting on the stone bath mat. As soon as he was done, my other cat runs up and starts drinking water as well.
 
Wow! I'm glad I noticed that. I'm glad I took notice of that. Because if I didn't, who knows what would have happened.
 
Me, I had tried to do the right thing. I had tried to make something better for my cats. But, in trying, in doing so, I had achieved just the opposite.
 
It's all good now, they've drank a lot of water. But, there was a couple days where they weren't getting fully hydrated. Not—not good.
 
I don't know??? …Sometimes you try to make things better for somebody. But, it has just the complete opposite effect. Like I already mentioned, this has probably happened to all of us at one point or another. Maybe you can think of a time where you tried to help somebody or something out, and it just went the opposite.
 
I guess the big question that comes to mind is—is our trying actually doing something for them, or is it doing something for us? That's a hard one to answer. But, I think it's something you really need to think through before you ever try to do anything for anybody. …Something that they haven't asked you to do.
 
Just a few rambling thoughts for you to keep in mind.