Maybe we should read those things

It's amazing what reading instructions can do. We had noticed that Natalie, the upstairs cat in this house, was reluctant to use her drinking fountain (doesn't every cat have their own drinking fountain?) so I decided to order new filters. Looking through the instruction book for the item number, I saw a) that the pump could be disassembled for cleaning , b) and this should be done every couple of weeks. Realizing that a year was more than a couple of weeks( I am quick that way) I disassembled the pump and found enough growths to provide at least one Ph.D thesis in bacteriology, and perhaps a middling length career.