Conference misery::feline_v1

Since they know you are the cause of their discomfort (aren't their
people responsible for everything, good or bad?), being miserable is
their way of making you feel guilty.  Sounds like it might be working?
8^)


Jan  whose_cats_just_love_being_in_the_basement_now

    Because cate are heat vampires.  At least Megan is, though she may
    finally get warm enough this weekend.  The only time she sleeps
    stretched out is when she can manage to find a large patch of sun.
    She's a dark tortie and I think she only stretches out to increase
    the surface area available to absorb heat.  As she is rather strangely
    shaped, when she does stretch out (I think 'puddle out' is a more
    descriptive term.) she provides a rather incredible amount of furry
    solar collector.
    
    Leslie

    Ahem...16?  Elaine, I can't keep up with you anymore!  Tell me you're
    just doing some foster-cattting!!
    
    On to the heat subject.  I think Karen Luby entered a topic of this
    sort a few weeks back.  There were a lot of good replies.
    
    Chauncey has smartened up and on really hot days, sleeps in the
    basement.  However, when I got up this morning, he was sprawled
    across the kitchen counter.  Sometimes he sleeps on the bathroom
    floors or the glass tables - guess they feel a lot better than the
    carpet.
    

    Yes, Roberta - 2 are my friend Lauren's show kids!  Scotty & Vanity.
    She will be taking the little hairbags home shortly - I'll miss
    them a bunch!  Gee, I wonder if I should fill the empty space
    they will create!  
    
    Hmm. I remeber Karen speaking about that, now that you mention it.
    I just can't believe these crazies of mine.  I wouldn't mind if
    there wasn't a cool place for them to go, but the idiots have one!
    This morning when I went down to feed, the only smart one was
    Yurii - and he wasn't all that bright - he was curled up in a
    pink bed - not on the floor!  Oh well, I am going to go and
    work at home just to make sure they are ok and not melted into
    furry puddles.  I spoke to a friend in Derry, NH and she said
    that the thermometer on the bank read 110 !   I even left the
    fan on for them today - I hope no one got their tail stuck in
    it!  I gotta go - I will worry too much if i sit here longer!
    
    E.T.

    Funny that point came up about owners being responsible for everything.
    When it rains, my two look out of the cat flap and then up at me
    as though to say 'Lousy weather you decided to give us today'...
    they then walk to the front door and look up at me as though to
    say 'right, you've got one more chance to do better'.
    
    No explanations about God or the forces of nature seem to work..
    it is MY fault and there's no getting away from it.

    My Sheena is even more demented!  Not only do I find her in the
    upstairs bedroom (HOTTEST room in the house!), she's curled up on
    my heated water bed??  Doesn't make any sense to me?

    Yeah, cats are heat-worshippers, all right. I wouldn't mind so much,
    except that they seem to think *I* should like the heat, too - so
    on these recent sultry mornings I have awakened to find both cats
    curled up next to me, like hot (furry) bricks...
    
    Fortunately, they do it in the winter, too, and then at least it's
    welcome!
    
    -b

    re: .6
    
    Your heated water bed is probably under 80 degrees F.  Your cat
    is no dummy.
    
    Gary

    > under 80...
    
      Brrrrr!!!! Sounds like hypothermia-city!! That cat's not sleeping,
      it's unconscious!!
    
      On the *hottest* of nights, I might have my bed at 92 - 94. 
    
      80? Really? I just can't conceive of it... it sounds like as
      comfortable as sleeping in a swamp...
    
    Edd

    Re: 9  Me too!!  I think its dangerous to have the temp lower than
    your body temp isn't it?  
    
    I suppose .8 is kinda right, its still cooler than the air.  BUT
    the cellar floor is probably 20. degrees cooler than the bed?
    
    Corine

    Let me clear up a few things...
    
    1. I don't have a WB, so all my info is hearsay.
    
    2. Given enough time to adjust (such as a reasonably controlled
    home atmosphere) ALL items in a room are the same temperature
    (ambient)!  We THINK tile floors are colder that the carpets on
    them are, because the distribution of our feet on the surfaces are
    very different.  That is, a tile floor contacts about 100% of the
    part of our foot that touches it, while the rug contacts a very
    small percentage (air pockets, etc.). 
    
    3. I have asked several people about the WB temperature issue, and
    the reply I always get is that one needs to heat it to a constant
    temperature (easy because of the mass) winter and summer.  Agreed,
    80 is probably morgue temperature, but body temp is probably too
    high.  I would guess that a realistic temp to keep cool with would
    be [body-3 degrees]. I don't understand the point of having it at
    ambient - you don't gain any cooling that way.
    
    Gary_who_is_amazed_that_cats_and_WBs_mix_well

    External body temperature is about 86 degrees, so cooling a WB to
    anything lower than that makes the WB act as a giant heat sink.
    "Chilled" waterbeds are used in hospitals for cases where fever
    is dangerously high.  In such cases, "chilled" means between 78
    and 82 degrees.
    
    Back in the old days, before arthritis, when I could get in and
    out of my WB, I heated it year 'round.  Honey liked it best in the
    summer for some reason...
    
    Mary

    Does that mean that a WB near 98F will make you feel warmer?
    
    Gary

    My bed is set for 100. Since most people think that would be too
    warm I'm inclined to think the thermostat may need alignment.
    
    But it can't be too far off.
    
    It does make me feel warmer so I just throw a leg out from under
    the blanket to act as a heat sink.
    
    Aja loves the bed.
    
    Edd

    Well we used to sleep in a water bed and we did heat it year round,
    but we definately turned it down a couple of degrees in the summer.
    Otherwise we just sweltered!
    
    I believe the temp setting was about 90 degrees give or take a couple
    depending on time of year.
    
    The funny thing is that we decided about 6 months ago that we didn't
    like the water bed, so we moved "temporarily" to the guest room.
    Our cats moved with us, but the dog decided she had a good thing
    going.  So we share a full size bed with 2 cats (sociable little
    critters) and the dog gets a king size water bed to herself.  The
    biggest dog bed in history.  

    Karen, Tristan and Tenzing (and Aisha).

My husband, Peter, was probably one of the original water bed owners; 
he's been sleeping on one for about 20 years!  Neither of us can sleep 
on a regular bed for longer than 3 nights without having terrible 
back-aches.  During the winter, the temperature is set at 96 degrees, 
and during the summer, it's at 84 degrees.  Water is an excellent 
conductor of heat, so if it's not heated year-round, you freeze because 
it pulls the heat from your body.

Munchkin loves the water bed, but Mutu only sleeps on it when either 
there's no one there or Peter is away.  She finds the "waves" when 
either of us turn over too much because she's a light-weight (7 pounds), 
she bounces off!  Munchkin, tubette that he is at 14 pounds, just rides 
the waves out! (I know, we could get a waveless water-bed, but it takes 
all the fun out of it!).

I keep the paddle fans on through the day.  Not only does it circulate 
the air in the house, but Munchkin hates the heat.  He looks up at the 
fans and tells me to put them on by meowing and panting!  Mutu, on the 
other hand, loves the heat.  I'm sure they're very much like us, where 
some can tolerate more heat than others.

Regards,