Posted on 10/17/2005 10:36:47 PM PDT by FairOpinion
LUCAS Haynes can't read or write because chronic dyslexia tumbles the letters and jumbles his words.
But the gifted primary school student is a genius at taming his wild cat's jungle habits.
A cross between an Asian leopard and a domestic moggie, Lucas's rare bengal cat, Simha, is genetically driven to drink only running water.
Worried his family was wasting water by leaving a tap running for their cat, eight-year-old Lucas set about solving the problem.
He invented and built an infra-red water saver – a device that detects Simha approaching the bath and turns on the tap for him.
The brilliant invention has impressed Victorian Science Talent Search judges who have given Lucas an award for his clever creativity.
It took Lucas two months to design and build his infra-red water saver.
A friendly engineer in his street helped him find the parts.
"Because I can't read or write, I couldn't send an essay to accompany my entry in the competition," Lucas said.
"So I photographed it every step of the way instead, and I did a Powerpoint presentation."
Lucas doesn't let learning difficulties slow him down. "Einstein was a slow learner and it didn't hold him back," he said.
Principal of the Maharishi School in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir, Frances Clarke, said Lucas was an exceptional student in spite of profound dyslexia.
"He is a Year 2 pupil who is in my Year 3-6 composite class because of his astonishing verbal skills and he is highly intelligent," Mrs Clarke said.
Mum Suzi Haynes said since Simha joined the family as a kitten, he and Lucas had become best mates. "The cat has a personality of its own because of its ancestry and we thought it might bring Lucas out of himself a bit."
CLEVER creativity . . . bengal cat Simha drinks from a tap courtesy of an infra-red device invented by his eight-year-old owner Lucas Haynes. Lucas, who has dyslexia, won a Victorian Primary School Science award for the invention.
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Neat story about a bright, inventive kid, despite his dyslexia and a lucky wild cat.
"But the gifted primary school student is a genius at taming his wild cat's jungle habits. "
Neat story about an inventive kid and his tame bengal cat.
Kitty PING
You said it.
Our otherwise fussy Siamese didn't have any such hang-ups. She drank straight from the toilet.
Thanks for the ping, Slings. One of my cats will only drink out of my cup in the bathroom, while the really big kitty insists on having the kitchen faucet running, which I can only do periodically. Good thing I love them.
Beautiful kitties, above my paygrade.
Simha means lion, as in Simba or the Sikh honorific Singh.
You're welcome. The furballs really do have their own personalities.
meow to creativity
"Brilliant" and "invention" are a bit of an overstatement. These things have been in use in public restrooms for over fifteen years.
My current kitty only drinks out of my bedroom tumbler.
I guess this is a good a thread as any to post on one of my past cat's weirder drinking habits.
She is gone now, but she used to push her water bowl across the kitchen before she would drink from it. It didn't matter where it started - it had to go across the entire kitchen, and only then she would drink. Anyone have any ideas? That one always perplexed me.
Wow! That cat must have been REALLY thirsty!
If I had a sliding glass door, he'd do that. (as I'm surrounded by 2 of the Viking Hoard)
Bengal and clever child bump! I have both of them!
It's my understanding that Bengals sold as pets by breeders are at least a couple of generations removed from the wild. They did cross the Asian wild cat with domestic cats, but the offspring of such crosses are crossed again with each other to breed true over several more generations. So, specimens of the Bengal domestic breed retain *some* wild traits in addition to looking wild (I've read that Bengals are *very* active), but are much tamer than a true wild cat.
As for cats liking to drink running water, I've had a couple of them who liked to drink from the bathroom sink faucet.
There are now several kinds of cat drinking fountains sold, in catalogues and pet stores, which have a reservoir and a pump to provide a stream of running water. They also have filters, etc., to keep the water clean and aerated.
The two cats I have now seem content to drink out of either regular bowls or long-term drinkers with plastic jugs that refill the bowls by gravity alone.
I also hope the kid's parents are able to get him some of the newer, possibly more high-tech help for dyslexics and enable him to learn to read okay. Sounds like he is very intelligent, but obviously learning to read would be a good thing.
Not to take anything away from the kid's inventive brilliance, but wouldn't a simple champagne fountain using water instead of champagne done exactly the same thing?
Well, maybe the kid has never seen a champagne fountain.
Also some people pointed out that these days you can buy drinking fountains for pets, where the water is pumped around and flows.
This is in Australia, one would think they have all the modern conveniences, but maybe the kid and the family hasn't seen them.
Neat, feel good story but no deal here. The IR activated valve is found in countless public restrooms throughout the U.S.. It flushes when you move away and turns on taps when you present your hands for washing. These systems have been around longer than this kid has been alive.
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