Some people seem to be very well trained by their cats! :p

One of my cats loves water from the faucet, too. And like you, I don't like him jumping on the counters. I accidentally solved this problem when I didn't turn the bathtub faucet off all the way--he jumped into the tub and drank from the dribbling faucet. Problem solved--for me at least. I still keep a dish of water near their food bowls, but whenever I go into the bathroom, he follows me and jumps into the tub waiting for his water "fix." Just takes a few minutes out of my day, and no messy fountain to clean. He usually gets three or four looong drinks every day, and I have seen him drinking from the water bowl, too, especially when I put fresh water out.

We have one, our Cat Groomer, sells them for little over her costs, they come in of stainless steel or ceramic, all parts(except motor) are dishwasher safe. Our cats(3) and 1 dog do drink out it no problem. Unfortunately we live in an extremely hard water area, we have a water softener on full blast, I suspected the high salt content was reeking havoc with the senior cats health and we are seeing positive results so for now we will continue with it.
We have had no issues what so ever. The same model is at PetSmart and Petco. Sorry, don't remember the name, it was in the $100 range.

Lynnie you are my kind of cat person! I did have a drinkwell fountain at one time. Killed the motor since i couldn't keep it filled all the time. Very busy household at that time. I have no problem letting my kitties drink from the faucet. If it encourages them to drink more water, I'm all for it and if guests don't like it they do t have to stay. My cats health comes before strangers.

We had one with our previous cats. We about to adopt 2 new cats and have already bought a fountain for them. We filter all the house water, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Would it work to put the fountain in a large cake pan when you need to move it to the sink for cleaning? That way the water would be contained it it sloshed. Or maybe some other type of similar container?

Please don't spray your cat with vinegar! I trained my cats through the years to stay off the counters by simply spritzing them with plain, room temperature water! The vinegar might harm the cats skin or eyes, even if it is diluted.

I also have a Drinkwell fountain for my cat. She drinks much more water with the fountain and her health is better. It's not hard to clean, takes me about 5-10 minutes. The filters last longer than they state on the package providing you keep the fountain clean. It's worth the $ to purchase a better quality product that will last for years.

I usually just grab a dishpan and dump the water into it. I used to try to balance it across to the sink. Messy! This is much better! After I've got all the components in the sink I fill up the dishpan with soapy water and everything is clean in jig time and ready for another couple of weeks use.
As for the comment about "being well trained by my kitty," I admit it! I've given up trying to train her because, frankly, she is smarter than I am!
On the positive note, if you have a cat you don't have to worry about earthquake proofing your house. The cat's already seen to that! I rarely have any breakage during an earthquake! :thumbup:

Sounds inhumane to me....I mean vinegar? Really. Just saying.