Plenty of cats vote for distance with their feet
Watch where a cat actually drinks and you will often find her at a glass, a distant bowl, or a dripping tap rather than the water dish placed neatly beside her food. That pattern is common enough to take seriously. Cats tend to prefer water that sits in its own spot, away from the feeding station, and offering a separate location is one of the simplest hydration experiments a household can run.
Preference varies by individual, though. Some cats drink happily wherever the bowl lands, so the honest answer is to set up the choice and let your own cat's behaviour settle the question over a week or so.
The instincts and irritations behind the preference
A wild cat's reasoning still echoes indoors. Water found beside a carcass can be spoiled by it, so drinking away from food is a cautious habit written deep into feline behaviour. The modern kitchen version is milder but similar: food crumbs fall into side-by-side water, kibble dust and odours taint it, and a fastidious cat may reject water that smells like dinner.
Placement details matter too. Bowls pushed into a corner force a cat to drink with her back exposed and her whiskers brushing the sides, both of which many cats dislike. A water spot in a calm, open area, where she can approach from more than one direction and see the room while she drinks, often wins simply because it feels safer and cleaner.
Running a fair placement test at home
Put a second bowl in a different room or across the kitchen from her food, fill both with fresh water at the same time each morning, and note which one drops faster over several days. Wide, shallow bowls in ceramic, glass, or stainless steel suit many cats because they are easy to clean and do not hold odours the way scratched plastic can.
Keep the experiment clean: wash bowls daily, since a slimy film will make a cat avoid a bowl for reasons that have nothing to do with location. If she clearly favours the separate spot, make it her main water station and keep the food-side bowl as backup, or retire it. Cats who roam the whole home may appreciate a water point on each floor, especially older cats who should never have to travel far for a drink.
When drinking habits themselves need attention
Where she drinks is a preference question; how much she drinks is a health signal. A cat who suddenly drinks far more than usual, hovers at bowls, or produces noticeably larger clumps in the litter tray deserves a veterinary conversation, as does a cat who stops drinking, since changes at the water bowl often speak earlier than other signs.
Senior cats, cats eating dry food, and cats in warm homes all benefit from encouragement to drink: fresh water, appealing placement, and more than one station. Note her normal pattern while she is well, because a routine you have actually observed is what makes a change visible later.
Once you know her favourite spots, KinsLe's Care Teams can carry the daily refresh as an assigned task, with a timestamp when it is done, so her preferred bowl never sits stale while everyone assumes someone else filled it.