Conference misery::feline_v1

    At the risk of sounding flippant...
    
    > Why aren't they smart enough to stay in the basement...?
    
    How do they get upstairs??? Open door, maybe?????
    
    Sounds like downstairs would be the most comfortable. Why don't
    you set up a couple pin-ball machines, a pool table, a stereo 
    withtheir favorite CD's and a well stocked bar so they'll have
    *something* ("Mommy, we're bored...") to do?
    
    Aja works on her tan...
    
    Edd

    HI.. well I have the same problem... I put the a/c on low.. and
    I have fans .. (up high so that no one gets nosey!!! :*)... and
    I keep the shades drawn,, that way " the kids are fine.. I
    also run the a.c on hi for a about 1 HR before I leave for
    work..fwiw.. IF you think about it.. it is really not thar expensive
    to run the a/c cuz is all that is really on during the day.. 
    except for whne the kids are listening to the stereo.. or
    the soaps..:*)........ hopes this helps,,
    regards
    kate

    I also have the same problem.  I live in an old building with
    no insulation and the back rooms get ALL the afternoon sun.
    It turns into a regular oven.  What I've done is put window
    locks on the front living room and bedroom windows so I can
    leave them open a crack.  I also put a fan in the living room,
    bedroom and kitchen and I never turn them off.  It's not
    exactly cool, except in the living room, but it keeps it to
    a tolerable level and the cats don't seem to mind.
    
    -Mary
    

    Glad you brought up this topic, Karen.  I, too, have been worring
    about Chauncey & Nikki getting too hot.  We have a ceiling fan in
    the stairwell which I set to medium.  The door leading down to the
    basement is open all the time - that's where the food, water, and
    litter is; however, I don't see them go down there to just "hang
    out" very often.  Like you, I only hope that they are smart enough
    to go down there to cool off.  I feel so guilty going to work without
    leaving windows open, but Chauncey would tear the screen to shreds
    trying to get out.  Plus, all of our windows are patio doors, so
    it isn't feasible to leave them open all day; too risky.
    
    Like Kate, I think I will try leaving a fan on while I am at work.
    

    Hi--
    
    I know this is a problem, and I have had to deal with it, too. 
    However, it makes me worried to see folks leaving a fan running
    all day.  It is too easy for a fan to overheat, and perhaps start
    a fire.  Call me a worrier, but..!
    
    If the cats get to where it is relatively cool and dark, and have
    access to plenty of cold water (I sometimes put ice cubes in the
    bowl before I go so it stays nice and cool all day) during the day,
    they should be fine.  They are smart;  and will sleep during most
    of the heat.
    
    Keeping your shades down half or full will help, too.  Best of luck
    with this, but please be careful of running fans all day!
    
    Jane

    >ice cubes...
    
    I often leave Aja a bowl of ice cubes. It buys her a few extra hours
    of something cool to drink....
    
    Edd

    Ceiling fans are meant to have a heavy duty cycle - I often leave
    (left) them on 24 hours a day for months at a time.  In the above
    mentioned situation, with correct venting (upstairs), the cool air
    from the basement would be pulled through the house, and would help
    everything, not just the kits.
    
    After all is said and done, if they have a reasonably cool place,
    like the basement, they will not allow themselves to cook.  They
    may not have all the play opportunities, but they are pretty smart
    animals when it comes to self-preservation.
    
    Gary

    I do that too.. POOKIE LOVES THEM....!!!!! it goes well with her
    perrier... :*)..... Happy however looked at them quite strangely
    yesterday,, and proceeded to try and get them  out of her bowl..
    which ended up tipped over and she was covered with water.. it was
    funny.. she stood there and muttered.. and of course Poookie
    just stared at her,, so mummy got her some more,, and I
    went to say good by to Pookie.. and when I came out.. yup..
    you guessed it.. a repeat performance.. so we tried again..!!!!
    Regards
    Kate..
    
    P.S. Happy  does not drink Perrier.. according to Pookie
    she drinks, RIPPLE OR THUNDERBIRD WINE.. NO TWIST... :*).....
    

    My furballs get the comfort of a/c all day (and night!).  Last night,
    Chauncey was lying right next to the air duct, catching a cool breeze.
    He was lying on his back with his head turned toward the cool air.
    My house has central air, and it really doesn't cost that much to
    run it all the time (runs thru my gas furnace, but the a/c is
    electric). The most I've paid was $60.00 a month, and that was for
    the hottest month of the year.
    
    Honey likes a few cubes in his water bowl; Chauncey flips them out,
    just like Happy.  Oh, well....
    
    Mary

    My guys are feeling the heat, too.  Yesterday when I got home they
    were all just sort of stretched out on the kitchen floor.  When
    I came it, they just sort of looked at me as if to say "was this
    weather _your_ idea?"  Honestly to look at them you'd think that
    somebody had just yelled "TUMMY INSPECTION" or something.
    
    Marion
    

    
    	I was thinking that maybe I could give T.K. a buzz cut and
    	Bandit a mohawk!!!  Then they would be cool kitties AND
    	"cool" dudes!!
    
    	Karen

    Please don't leave those fans on when you are not home.!! Some
    terrible stories have been done on that situation.
    
    Karen, we have gas heat but electric air conditioning, and the most
    it has ever cost is $55.00 a month. Tim says we are the only people
    in the world who put the air conditioner on to keep the dog and
    cat comfortable while we are at work. (We know  that is not true
    don't we?)  If you leave the air on about 75-78 they will stay
    cool as they don't do anything but lay around all day anyhow.
    
    One thing about living in New England our hot spells don't last
    more than a week any how.  
    
    If anyone has a crockery type dish that they can use for water that
    will keep the water cool for a long time, and putting ice in it
    is even better. Don't those fur faces love to see those cubes go
    around and around.
    
    Keep cool,
    Barbara
    

    I always thought you shouldn't give an animal cold water.  That
    the water should be tepid or lukewarm but not cool or cold. I don't
    know, maybe that's just my imagination.  Don't tell my kids the
    other kitties get ice cubes though - I'll never hear the end of
    it!!! ;-)
    
    The girls stay in the basement when we're not home, so they are
    cool kitties all day long (in fact we darn near joined them last
    night!).  I make sure the water bowls are full every morning and
    evening so they don't dehydrate.
    
    While they seem lethargic, and slightly annoyed, they also aren't
    charging around destroying things, so I can't really complain much!
    ;-) ;-)
    
    Mary-Michael

Cats and dogs are smart...when it gets hot, they don't move until it cools
off.  It doesn't hurt them, they just "ride" it out like the rest of us.
We have no air conditioning and this is the way we keep it comfortable:
Open the house to the night air and run the fans all evening and even all
night to blow lots of cool air into the house.  When we get up, we close up
the house entirely and CLOSE ALL CURTAINS AND BLINDS, blocking the sun from
"baking" the interior air.  Don't open up the house until after at least
5:00 in the evening.

This will make the interior of the house 15 degrees cooler than the
outside temperature with good insulation - at least 10 degrees cooler
even if insulation is poor.  This is all that is required to keep the
cats healthy....you really don't have to be concerned as long as the
cats have plenty of water (cool or cold is perfectly OK unless the animal
has been forced to exercise - like jogging your dog during the summer
which can kill him).

    Just so y'all don't think I'm intentionally endangering the kitties
    with the fans... I work at night, so I'm home all day when the
    fans are on.  The hot weather seems to bother them a lot less
    than it does me.  While I sit there in front of the fan, they're
    having summer Olympics in the living room.
    
    -Mary (and George and Hobbes and countless kittens)
    

    Since I work nights (til the end of this week, yea!) and the sun
    makes an oven out of the bedroom, we set up the air mattress in
    the living room this morning with the fan blowing on it.  I was
    tolerably comfortable.  Any guesses as to where Trouble was?  Of
    course, the bedroom.  She usually sleeps with me, but put one paw
    on the air mattress and said "no way, Mom".  I just don't understand
    why she picked the hottest place in the house to sleep.  Also, I
    agree with someone back there - cats and dogs do tend to "ride it
    out" with the heat.  Trouble just lays around and doesn't even talk
    much until it gets cooler.  
    
    Bernice
    Mother_of_Trouble

    Re: .11
    
    >I was thinking that maybe I could give T.K. a buzz cut and
    >Bandit a mohawk!!!
    
    Has anyone ever done anything similar?  I know someone who defurs
    her sheep dog, and that's the happiest dog I ever see in the summer.
    I'm considering giving PortyPrecious a buzz cut since she is so
    long haired and seems to hate the heat. . .
    
    I'm bringing her to the vet next week for her monthly grooming,
    and am considering having her shaved. . .
    
    The neighbors will really think I'm strange then!
    
    	-Nancy
    

    I take my finger and run over Aja's head form shoulder to nose.
    This makes her fur stand up straight just like a Mohawk.
    
    ...no wonder she's always cranky!
    
    Edd

re: cutting your cat's hair...

talk to the vet FIRST about that...I seem to remember something about the
hair being good for the cat and protecting the skin...I don't think they
take to buzz cuts well.  Not to mention what it does to one's dignity!

If your cat is getting really hot and uncomfortable, take a wet wash cloth
and wet down the cat's head.  You'd be surprised how much it helps to have
your forehead cool when it's unbearably hot outside.  I'd also make SURE
that older cats were indoors (out of the sun) when it gets real hot...they
can go outside and play some other time.  You run too much of a risk that
the cat would get chased into a place without protection from the sun
by another agressive cat or a dog...

Try the wet wash cloth trick...it really does work (although the gang
hates the feeling of getting wet..."ARGGHHH!  She's got the wash cloth
out again, RUN FOR IT!!!)

			D 8^}

    Talk to Cin Gerry.  She says that she gives most of her persians
    a "buzz" cut all the time.  
    
    Holly
    

    I've got a picture of a bred-hairless cat on my cube wall.
    
    It's amazing how many people don't know it's a cat! Most ask
    if it's a bat...
    
    Edd

	 I vote  for leaving the air conditioner on all the time. I used
     to  turn  mine  off  during  the  day when I lived in a third floor
     apartment  with  a cathedral ceiling. That place was always like an
     oven  when  I  came  home  in  the  afternoon.  I'd  turn  the  air
     conditioner  (an  in  the  wall unit) on and wouldn't start to feel
     comfortable until about 3 hours later. I finally started leaving it
     on  all the time. It was worth the extra money. I am also convinced
     that  the  machine  didn't have to work quite as hard to *keep* the
     place cool as it did to inititially cool it.

	 Now I  live  in  a  condo with central heat/air (gas) and still
     leave  it  on  all the time. Even though it doesn't take as long to
     cool the whole place, it's sure nice to walk into at the end of the
     day!!

    We have central A.C., and I also let it run 24 hrs/day when the 
    heat and humidity get oppressive.  The air conditioner runs more
    efficiently (and for less time) when it's just maintaining the
    cool temperature than trying to chill down the entire condo every
    time.
    
    And, like someone else said, the New England heat waves usually
    only last a couple days, so it's not like the A.C. goes on in June
    and isn't turned off until September.  I think my electric bill
    goes up about $15 during the "heavy duty" months.
    
    The cats bask in it, of course.  When I come home in the afternoon
    and let a burst of hot, stuffy air thru the front door, I get
    *very* dirty stares of disdain ("Do you *mind*?  We are all quite
    comfortable here, and your hot air bothers us.") from four cool 
    bodies.
    
    If you don't want to run your A.C., though, how about just leaving
    the door to the basement open a bit so that the crew can escape
    down there if they need a cool place?
    
    Joanne
    

    Okay, so I have to admit it!!!  I keep several of my persians clipped
    down.  I mean, really clipped!!!  They sorta look like poodles.
     
    I don't do it for the weather, my kitties stay in their room in
    the basement when I'm not home.  But, several of them are difficult
    to groom.  I haven't found any problems with the cats due to the
    "haircuts", although, they always get a little embarrassed on the
    day they have the haircut.  Actually, they usually enjoy the clipping
    and will roll and roll and roll when I've finished.  
    
    I'ld rather have a cat enjoy being clipped than fight me when I
    try to comb.  
    
    cin
    

    I've recently taken to putting a bowl of water in the freezer at
    night, freezing it solid and giving it to Aja before I leave
    for work.
    
    Edd

    I agree with .5(?) that cats will find a way to stay as cool as they
    can.  I came home from work last night to find Patch sleeping in
    a corner on the tiled bathroom floor, wrapped around the base of
    the toilet.  And yes, that was the coolest spot in the house!  Guess
    she's pretty smart (at least I think so).
    
    J
    

    
    As we all have seen over the past few days, out kittys sort of go
    into slow motion when the weather gets hot.  This has been true
    even for my normally energetic kitten.  Well this morning something
    in The Bicket kitten sort of snapped.  It seems that she has been
    storing up all that energy, and it all came spewing forth all at
    once.  I mean this kitten was booking it!  Ran all over the house
    for nearly an hour.  She actually climbed walls! (is that where
    the expression comes from).  Any body else have a cat get all wound
    up in the cool of the morning?
    
    Marion

>Any body else have a cat get all wound up in the cool of the morning?
    
Hannah not only dashes madly about, she LOVES to demolish nice neat
piles of magazines on the coffee table...they skid SO NICE when you
hit them at top speed!

By the time I leave, she has everyone chasing around, leaping into the
air after invisible butterflies, and rolling each other end over end.

When I come home, it's "fur-rug city"....nothing moving at all.

    At the risk of sounding totally eccentric, this is what I used to
    do to "snap freeze" my babies. WalksFar had 2 kittens which we kept,
    SierraLeonie and Stranger. Well, as kittens, I couldnt let them
    out and we had no airconditioning. At lunch times and after
    work, I would race home, open up the freezer door (one of those
    doors that drop down from the freezer) pop a towel on it and let
    the kittens sit there for about 5 minutes (totally supervised, of
    course). This would cool them right down, not to quickly, and they
    loved it!!!!  I'm not sure how good this was for the the refrigerators
    motor but it sure got my little babies motors going.
    
    Please, no notes on cruelty, as it wasn't. They suffered no side
    effects, colds etc..., just happy healthy cooled well adjusted kittens
    with a fettish for frozen TV dinners.
                                     

    PortyPrecious and OscoBosco have been going absolutely beserk the
    past few mornings -- climbing the screens, destroying the stereo
    speakers, breaking the worlds record in the 100 yard dash, and
    perfecting their acrobatics.
    
    And I thought that it must be a full moon.
    
    I sure am glad to hear that my babies aren't the only ones who are
    acting beserk!
    

    no, your not the only one.  i also run home to my babies every once
    in a while, when i have been mistreating them by going out and not
    playing for a while with them before i leave.  i always get the
    dirty looks at alas, feel guilty as ____.  so, in coming home today
    for lunch i observed shirl, running out crazy doing all sorts of
    gymnastics to show off to her mom.  needlesstosay, i thought it
    was because it just started raining and was cooling down by the
    second.  i will say i was amazed when i came in to read further
    notes on this subject and ran into the last few.
    
    i wonder what it will be like when i get home????
    
    cj
    

    To second the motion of cats being smart enough to stay cool in
    the heat, last night, when Dana got home from work and no kitties
    greeted him at the door, he searched the place and finally found
    both Chauncey and Nikki in the basement sprawled out across the
    floor.
    
    Now, I can sit here at work in the A.C. and not feel sorry for them!
    
    /Roberta
    

    The last few nights, I've been coming home to listless kitties...they
    would just lie there...sooo, right when I get home, I turn on the
    a/c and put them in the room to cool off..they love it! nice refreshed
    kitties!  like all the others here, they too find nice cool places
    to lay (rumtum especially likes the kitchen table :-))  oh well,
    cats will be cats....

    I consider my cats to be pretty smart, but they do have one dumb
    habit.  When it gets this hot, instead of staying in the cool basement
    or sit in front of the AC in the first floor living room, they sit
    in the upstairs bedroom windows sunning themselves!  My house has
    *lots* of windows so it's not like they never see the sun.  Maybe
    they like limping around like dishrags.....  They never complain.
    BTW, they were like this before we got the dogs so I can't blame
    them for it.
    
    Diane 

    Karen,
    
    Another item that I do for Sy is to put a fan on a timer.  I have
    the house completely closed up and two fans set to come on in the
    afternoon.  The fans run for approximately 2 or 3 hours and then
    shut off.  No chance of the fan overheating from 3 hours of being
    on and kitty can sit in front of the cool air if kitty wishes. 

    We just recently acquired a swamp cooler.  Works real great, but
    I am not convienced that a timer will work with this.  The timer
    gets to warm.  Look towards Sears for a good quality timer, ones
    that can be set with on and offs for every hour. 

    Linda
    

                You can buy timers that are capable of handling the
        higher loads. Look for one designed for air conditioners.
                
                /s/     Bob

    
    
    	Instead of adding to E.T.s note I decided to add to mine.
    
    	I had my air conditioner looked into and it turned out
    	that my main duct was partially blocked.  And the man showed
    	me how to turn my dampers so as to distribute the air
    	more evenly.  AND, I bought a new thermostat that went
    	up to 90, rather than to 75.  So now, I leave my Air on
    	at 85 all day and it is much better when I get home.  
    	When I'm home it is at 78 and quite comfortable.  The cats
    	are much happier now.  Bandit is still a bit hot with his
    	huge fur coat and has taken to sleeping in the sink.  T.K.
    	is happy as a clam though.  
    
    	Karen