Cats do not take like a duck to water – far from it (Picture: Imgur)

Despite the fact they’re the one pet that makes pains to groom themselves, it’s ridiculously difficult to get cats into a bath.

While the majority of dogs love splashing about at every opportunity, it’s accepted that cats hate water, though it’s not generally known why.

So what’s the reason for their phobia?

Domestic cats are actually able to swim, but in most cases they do not like to enter water as it can be exhausting for them.

But there’s another explanation as to why cats can’t stand getting wet.

Showering some cats can have a Gremlins-style effect on them (Picture: Imgur)

When cats were first bred for domestic life, they were shielded from the elements by their owners. After all, no one walks their cat, let alone in the rain.

This means that over the centuries cats, like humans, have chosen to avoid getting wet, and therefore have not evolved to find the experience to their liking.

That’s not all, though. The ancestors of the domestic cat are the big cats of Europe and Africa, plus China’s desert cat.

Most cat ancestors, like the endangered Pallas’ Cat from Asia, have not found swimming to be a necessary part of life (Picture: Getty)

None of these had any reason to venture close to water, so they did not adapt to deal with it well.

Unlike their Asian big cat counterparts, leopards and lions also generally avoid water-dwelling predators like the crocodile, which might also explain why their descendants don’t trust water all that much.

However, the Turkish Van Cat is the exception that proves the rule, as it loves swimming – and the breed originates in the Lake Van region of Turkey, where the extreme summer heat drove the cats into the water to cool off.

The Turkish Van Cat absolutely loves a swim (Picture: Giphy)

If your cat doesn’t like getting wet, but you need to bathe him or her (due to excessive dirt, infection or because you want to initiate the cat), then you need to tread carefully.

Place the cat in an empty bath or tub and make sure they’re feeling relatively calm.

Pampering a cat can make them feel better about a soaking (Picture: Giphy)

Then, use a damp cloth with warm water to dampen the cat’s fur, before slowly filling the tub up with warm (never hot) water.

If you need to use shampoo make sure you do two rinses to make sure none of it stays on the fur, then dry your kitty off with a warm fluffy towel.

MORE : Where do hamsters live in the wild?

MORE : What to feed birds when it snows