Wouldn’t it make more sense for a desert animal to be crazy about water, with it being a scarce resource? If it should happen to come across a pond of it, shouldn’t it want to throw itself at it with wild abandon, not knowing if or when there would be another chance? You know, just like with me and wome… um, I mean - never mind.
Actually, Luci loves water. She’s actually jumped into the shower with me on occassion. (No, I did not let her stay, because she’ll get water in her ears)
Once she jumped into the tub when my sister was filling it up for a bath. It went over her paws entire, and she just kind of stood there, like it was no big deal.
Which makes sense, since tigers originated the jungles of Asia. 
Many dogs have been breed specifically for hunting, water fowl and if not that then at the very least live with humans and go where they go, hunters and gathers. They are very used to the water and are born knowing how to swim.
Cats on the other hand, [did they become domesticated in Egypt?] I can see many reason why they do not want to get wet. All things being equal a cat will weigh less than a similar sized dog. Cats are very nimble and quick and love the hunt, being wet weighs you own A LOT, enough that you may not be able to jump to the other tree to catch that bird and fall to your doom, which I think could be a factor. Secondly if cats were indeed domesticated in Egypt it makes sense that the average water they are used to is not what a dog is. I also think cats, for whatever reason love being clean, maybe it makes them harder to sense while on the hunt. Water in the wild usually isn’t to pure and unless a car manages to find a nice hot spring and take a bath will probably leave an order on the cat making prey sense their presance
Also, domestic cats are small, that means they lose heat easier than larger animals due to a larger surface area for their mass. So being of small size and with fur not designed for water, I expect they get cold faster than a larger animal like a dog or human.
Nah. When water is that scarce, you want it for drinking, not washing.
Cats enjoy water, they just don’t like to get wet, as a general rule. Every cat I’ve ever had has enjoyed hopping in the bathtub after the humans are done showering, and licking the stray droplets. Many of my cats have enjoyed getting a sink drink, that is, I let the water trickle out of the faucet for them to drink. Most of them are just not interested in getting their fur wet.
It’s nature’s way of leveling the playing field for fish.