The weather in Chicago was gorgeous yesterday: not too hot, and the lake was a very dark blue, almost black—darker than I’d ever seen it. Gas prices are about to skyrocket due to a problem in a local refinery, but my long-distance driving is over for the moment. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the Furry Navel of the World is contorted like a pretzel:
A: Are you doing yoga?
Hili: No, I’m meditating.
Don’t you just want to rub that furry belly, though?
In Polish:
Ja: Uprawiasz jogę?
Hili: Nie, medytuję.
As lagniappe, we have Leon, who is on vacation with his staff hiking in the mountains. I’m told, however, that in this hot weather he doesn’t want to take to his leash, and prefers napping during the day to hiking uphill.
Leon: And I am to climb this mountain at lunch time?
Perhaps it is the thought of being made to ‘ford every stream’ that is off-putting!
I have a black cat also. She gets into real distress on hot days. Comes into the house after 10 minutes or so and stretches out on the tile floor in the kitchen with her tongue hanging out. Her coat is almost hot to the touch.
Leon isn’t black, but he’s the darkest tabby I’ve ever seen. He has stripes and blotches on the fore, but aft he’s nearly black!
Cats don’t have much in the way of built-in cooling mechanisms…it’s mostly just evaporation through breathing and a few sweat glands on the pads of the feet.
However, if you keep the cat’s coat soaked, ideally with ice water when it gets really hot, the cat will be no more uncomfortable in the heat than you are.
This requires constant attention, as it doesn’t take all that long for the water to evaporate in really hot weather. That’s a good thing…the significant surface area of the wet fur means lots of cooling effect for the cat. But it doesn’t take long to get from wet to damp, and damp to dry. Not long after damp and before dry the cat will start to get uncomfortable.
It should be noted that humans need to pay careful attention to their own water intake…don’t attempt anything like this unless you’re in good shape and have experience hiking in the heat, yourself. And, of course, lots of water…the cat is going to need almost as much water as you should be drinking. Again, if you don’t have the necessary experience, you should almost certainly be drinking a lot more water (and a lot more often) than you’re thinking right now that you should be drinking.
All those cautions aside, there’s no reason you can’t take your cat hiking with you, even in the heat….
b&
I have had other black cats who were happy to hike along with us even in mid summer. But not this one. So perhaps there are differences. It does not get all that hot here, but can be quite humid. Anything above 25c and she is not happy. I doubt if she would allow to soak her. But the air conditioner via heat pump does the trick.
Cats probably inspired the very concept of yoga.
dat fuzzy belly
>o<