If you’ve ever tried to train a cat you know it’s next level difficult. They largely do what they want and are even happy to disobey you while looking you straight in the eyes.

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The word “no” means nothing to them.

While punishing cats with a spray bottle of water is not recommended because it simply doesn’t work (cats really only learn by positive reinforcement), one cat REALLY got the last laugh on her owner when she embraced what was supposed to be punishment.

Lacy Findley’s cat Poppy has always been obsessed with water. And while it’s uncommon, it’s not completely unheard of in cats.

Still, Findley did the right thing and checked with the vet about the relatively abnormal behavior. The diagnosis? Poppy is weird.

“When we first got her as a kitten, I was worried she had some sort of kidney problem but the vet checked her out and said that she was healthy, just weird,” Findley told The Dodo.

That’s probably the most common cat diagnosis in existence.

At 10 years old, Poppy is very aware of the rules of the house, but that doesn’t keep her from scratching one particular furniture item she’s not supposed to touch.

“I keep a lot of different scratching items for her but it’s never as appealing as the coffee table. I frequently catch her scratching the table while making eye contact with me,” Findley said.

And the only thing the cat likes better than torturing mom about the coffee table is water.

Despite her aquatic affinity, Findley decided that Poppy probably wouldn’t like being sprayed with water when it wasn’t on her own terms, so she tried spraying the cat when she went near the table.

Well, the joke was on mom – Poppy LOVES getting sprayed!

And now she associates it with her very worst behavior!

“I thought a spray bottle would help teach her to not scratch furniture. Now she scratches wooden furniture when she’s thirsty,” Findley wrote in a post on Facebook that has since been removed.

Of course, she’s given up on the spray bottle, but she does let Poppy play with it occasionally since she’s so obsessed.

This isn’t the first spray bottle punishment gone wrong.

In 2016, another cat owner posted her feline’s love of merely hearing the bottle come out.

Cat Loves Spray Bottle from r/funny

And others chimed in to say the strategy had backfired on them as well:

“I tried using a spray bottle to get my cat to stop scratching the walls. It didn’t seem to work. After a while, I caught on. She was doing it on purpose. She would scratch a wall then look down the hallway. If I didn’t move, she’d do it again. If I got up, she’d run and hide until I finally sprayed water in her face. After a few minutes she would come to my room and be all cuddly like nothing ever happened.”

It looks like cats win yet again.

Of course, this is just one more reason why we shouldn’t use spray bottles (or any other potential punishment) to train cats.

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Source: The Dodo, Feline Behavior Solutions