Cats and Hot Weather

[Lovemykitties!]

Well, the resent heat wave in my area has got my usually active cats passed out and spread eagle on the kitchen floor. I run the fan for them during the day when I am at work, but the house does get oppressive with the humidity. We only have one A/C unit in our apartment that hardly works, is 2-tone brown/gold, and was probably installed when “Shaft” was on the air. It is not even worth the cost to run it. I leave the door to our screened in balcony open too, so they can get some fresh breeze. I give them cool water every morning which is the temperature of soup my the time I get home at 3pm.

They clearly want play when I get home and start batting their toys around for attention. But after a minute, they surrender to the heat and flop over. Aries cracked me up last night because he had his teeth bared in attack mode, eyes wide, but he was laying lifeless on the floor as he let the toy got the better of him. He sat in this pose for about 2 minutes after I stopped playing with him, like his face muscles did not get the memo to chill out. I can not express to you the levels of creapiness and humor when you have gone onto another activity, leave the room, come back, and your cat is forzen in suspended animation of "freak-out" face.

What do you do to help your little guys out?

[Mary_NH]

Aries was probably panting. Cats will pant like dogs when they overheat.
Unfortunately this hot humid weather we've been having seems to have no affect on my crew.
We have one AC in our house and it's a one-roomer. Zeus will lay in front of it (on the arm of the sofa) but I think he just enjoys the breeze going in one ear and out the next.
Dixie lays up high on the cat condo, Tilly hangs out in the cool basement (there is one smart one in the group) and Missy is a heat-seeking missile so any lap regardless of how badly one is perspiring is hers.

[HDrydr]

Aries was panting I agree with Mary..... It does look freaky when they do that....
Hard to escape the heat that is for sure. I am lucky my condo has central air so they do well.
But when I had an apartment that did not have air I kept a fan blowing towards Buster's cage so he didn't over heat (For those who don't know Buster is a 7 year old boxer/lab) plus his water dish. Patches kept cool by being near the fan or laying on the kitchen floor. she does really well with the heat I think she really likes it hot. She will come out and lay under my chair if I am sunbathing even when it is roasting outside. I will leave out a frozen large Fiji bottle that she likes to lick the condensation off of and cools her tongue.

[Lovemykitties!]

Thanks for the info. I did not know cats could pant. I guess I will call and cancel the Priest now that I know my cat is not possessed.

[vene]

If you have room in your freezer, you can freeze large bowls of water and leave the ice chunks in the sink or bathtub. It will cool your kitchen or bathroom for hours.

[Ginny]

LOL at cancelling the Priest!

[Lovemykitties!]

Thanks vene, I will try that! On the plus side, we got our A/C looked at finally and fixed! Woot!