Heat wave with cats.
Jun. 22nd, 2011 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seanan_mcguireMy part of Northern California is currently experiencing its first really serious heat wave of 2011. I know better than to whine about this too much; by this point in the year, in a normal year, we'd be on heat wave three or four, and temperatures would be trending substantially higher than they are.
That being said, Thomas is only eleven months old, and this is actually the first really serious heat wave of his life. My house has air conditioning, but it doesn't run twenty-four hours a day, which means that it can get warm inside during the gaps. (Never dangerously warm. I am a good cat owner who does not bake her babies. But there's a big difference between "springtime cool" and "what is this shit?", especially when you've been genetically designed to go tromping around in heavy snow, mocking Jack Frost for his inability to nip at your nose.) Alice and Lilly are quietly miserable, but Thomas? Thomas is distressed.
Monday night, I got home from a hot, sweaty day at work, and promptly jumped into the shower, because sometimes, that's the only solution available to you. The Maine Coons thought so, too. In short order, I was joined in the shower by both Alice and Thomas, who splashed around in the water, got thoroughly drenched, and then took turns sitting on the plug so as to create a puddle for the other to swim in. Yes. My cats cooperatively filled the bathtub in order to have swampy funtimes.
After our shower, they squelched around the house like extras from Sigrid and the Sea Monsters until I chased them down and toweled them off. I think they're still annoyed about that. Sadly, their inability to understand "don't walk on keyboards while wet" is why they can't have a wading pool.
Heat wave with cats. It's going to be a long July.
That being said, Thomas is only eleven months old, and this is actually the first really serious heat wave of his life. My house has air conditioning, but it doesn't run twenty-four hours a day, which means that it can get warm inside during the gaps. (Never dangerously warm. I am a good cat owner who does not bake her babies. But there's a big difference between "springtime cool" and "what is this shit?", especially when you've been genetically designed to go tromping around in heavy snow, mocking Jack Frost for his inability to nip at your nose.) Alice and Lilly are quietly miserable, but Thomas? Thomas is distressed.
Monday night, I got home from a hot, sweaty day at work, and promptly jumped into the shower, because sometimes, that's the only solution available to you. The Maine Coons thought so, too. In short order, I was joined in the shower by both Alice and Thomas, who splashed around in the water, got thoroughly drenched, and then took turns sitting on the plug so as to create a puddle for the other to swim in. Yes. My cats cooperatively filled the bathtub in order to have swampy funtimes.
After our shower, they squelched around the house like extras from Sigrid and the Sea Monsters until I chased them down and toweled them off. I think they're still annoyed about that. Sadly, their inability to understand "don't walk on keyboards while wet" is why they can't have a wading pool.
Heat wave with cats. It's going to be a long July.
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Date: 2011-06-22 05:37 pm (UTC)(I just love that mental picture of them taking turns sitting on the outflow to make a pool. I so agree with them...)
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:09 pm (UTC)"Fun."
That's the word.
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Date: 2011-06-22 05:40 pm (UTC)I've also heard of folks with Persians doing the 'lion cut' thing and shaving off all the fur in the summertime, which makes the cat look pretty silly, but is probably more comfortable than hauling around that much fur in a climate where heavy fur coats are not your friends. Dunno how your kitties would feel about it.
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Date: 2011-06-22 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2011-06-22 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 06:12 pm (UTC)Swampy fun
Date: 2011-06-22 05:46 pm (UTC)Re: Swampy fun
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:00 pm (UTC)She also likes to cuddle when I am still wet from the shower, which since she's a short-haired shedding type means I acquire my own fuzzy coat.
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:04 pm (UTC)Solution: fill bathtub with cool water.
Locate cat #1. Capture cat #1. Dunk cat #1 in water. Make second, third, and fourth attempt to dunk cat #1 in water, each time getting a different section of cat wet. Perform cursory toweling of cat and extensive cataloging of damage to person.
Locate cat #2 (may take a while). Capture cat #2 (may take even longer, depending on how loudly cat #1 complained). Repeat dunking attempts, toweling, and injury cataloging.
Despite the effort and noise, it managed to keep kitties cool and occupied for the rest of the day while they groomed themselves... and me in smug satisfaction.
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:41 pm (UTC)Go Risu go!
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 06:46 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, I have a kitten who ran around full tilt in 98-degree weather and ended up panting like a dog (yes, we captured her and forced her into an air-conditioned room with nowhere to run) and a solid black cat who believes that that same 98-degree day is a fine time to lie in a patch of boiling sunshine so that she's *very nearly* warm enough.
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Date: 2011-06-22 07:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-06-22 06:59 pm (UTC)The cats had a cool room to duck into and I had a cool room to jump in after work until the house caught up.
Now that I work from home most days they have it good, as the whole house is kept cool :)
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Date: 2011-06-22 07:25 pm (UTC)My cats love to lay under the toilet. One day I'm afraid I may find them in there.
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Date: 2011-06-22 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2011-06-22 07:29 pm (UTC)They won't drink out of water dishes, but they will play in them until they and the floor are covered in water. They drink only from running water in the sink, and if I don't supervise they will lay in the sink and get sopping wet.
Opposable thumbs! ODG. Not these two. They already get into stuff, if they had thumbs the mind boggles at what they'd be doing.
BTW, my avatar shows the two of them at 4 months old. They're 4 years old now. They were very small and still are pretty little as cats go.
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Date: 2011-06-22 07:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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From:Sharing the heat wave
Date: 2011-06-22 07:40 pm (UTC)Ramesses (my Egyptian Mau) is still shedding his undercoat. His coloration is officially "Smoke". He LOOKS mostly black but when I brush him he SHEDS only grey. Such are the wonders of cats.
Hmmmm... It's over 90 already outside. Probably a good time to collect more grey fur.
Re: Sharing the heat wave
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Date: 2011-06-22 07:59 pm (UTC)Okay, I totally cracked up when I read that. Perhaps a little too much. But that's so much win.
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