Roof cats

Saturday we were all gabbing on the sidewalk in front of my house, when Gabe's face was suddenly frozen in shock. Unable to speak, he pointed up to a neighboring house where there were stray cats on the roof!

The orange one was our normal local nogoodnik Cyrus. Not sure who the other one is. Also, sorry for focus issues - trying to get close-ups with the Droid always ends in folly:

And look at the mystery interloper, friggin' drinking from the rain gutter!:


I was worried, so I thought I would ask Dr. Margot Smallski, endocrinologist and cat, what risks were involved in drinking from a gutter:

Well, firstly, it's dumb of these two to be strays in the first
place. They should find themselves some nice homes and stop trying to
populate the earth single-pawedly. Okay, end of sermon. Risks?
There's always a slim chance of water-borne illness in drinking stagnant
water. Didn't grandpa Don's middle sister die from drinking from a garden
hose way back when [true - ed.]? But it's more likely that this one would
lap up something disgusting and maybe just throw it up. Rust? Not an
issue, really. Cats will drink from the not-cleanest-in-the-world water
bowls, toilets, bath tubs. It's a mental thing - it's not that our systems
are inherently stronger, we just don't get all bothered like people do about,
you know, dust or something floating in a skin on the water. Big
deal, right? There are bigger things to worry about. Still, these two -
what's wrong with moving in somewhere? Christ.

Thanks, Doctor!

[Ask Dr Smallski is a new semi-regular column here at Nick Eddy Relents. Please feel free to leave health and medical questions for the doctor in the comments sections of any post]