Q. My cat must be part monkey as he uses his paws like hands and will actually pick up his food in one paw and eat it off his paw. He is 2 years old now, and we always thought his behavior was cute. But now he seems to have developed a taste for running water and has learned to pull the lever on our kitchen sink faucet to turn it on and drinks as it is running. However, he does not turn the water off and during the day it could be running for hours. We got him one of those drinking fountains for cats that always have water circulating and put it on our counter next to the sink, but he still turns on the faucet. Is there any way to teach him not to do it?

A. This is one of those situations where the pet wins by default. You cannot do anything in the way of training the cat unless you were around 24/7 monitoring the situation. The cat has learned that turning on the faucet makes something good happen so by what rationale could you persuade any animal that such a thing that brings pleasure is something forbidden?

I once had a dog that learned to turn the hose spigots on outside by actually turning the handle with her mouth, allowing her to play in the water. Of course, she did not turn off the water so we ended up with a flood in the backyard all the time. In the end I had to have a plumber change all the spigots to the type that you open up with a key. (It was actually quite sad to see her confusion in trying to turn on the new spigots with no success, but she got used to the situation in time.)

So you are going to have to pay a visit to a plumbing supply store and get a new faucet that no longer has a long handle. Once your monkey cat figures out that it is game over, he will resign himself to drinking out of the fountain that you provided.

Q. We have a 4-year-old, 60-pound shepherd mix that has been living at our home in the suburbs. However, now my daughter is taking the dog to live with her in an apartment in Flushing, New York. She will have a dog walker to take the dog out once during the afternoon, but otherwise the dog will be alone all day long. Do you think there will be an issue now and is there anything we can do make the transition easier?

A. I do not think that there is any cause for concern here. At 4 years of age, your dog most likely has learned everything about the world that it wants to know and will be content to spend its time dozing most of the day. The fact that your daughter arranged to have a dog walker makes all the difference in the world.

I used to bring my little dogs to my pet store during the day with me, but my big dogs had to stay home and, with my wife working and my kids in school, they had to be content to be alone all day. I always think that city dogs are happier than suburban dogs anyway. When my dogs were out of the house, they were in my backyard surrounded by a 6-foot stockade fence. City dogs get to go about into the real world at least three times a day, and every time they do it is a new adventure — the smells and sounds are pure entertainment and in the city they are always different. A world of different smells to a dog is equivalent to you getting a new iPhone every day to open up and explore. So I do not think that your dog’s move will be much of an inconvenience and, depending on the dog walker your daughter hires, then it may be a move upward in life.