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Hi all, we're having a bit of a heat wave in England at the moment - don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - but I wondered if anyone had any tricks for keeping MC's cool? I've got the windows open a crack but because I live on a very busy road I don't want to open them up to far in case Freyja gets out. Any ideas, or am I just being over protective??
I think we all worry about the heat & our little darlings but they all seem to have the own ways of coping,I try to give them plenty of options two of them stay out in the pen all the while even though they can get in the house & when it gets to the hottest part of the day they come down off the shelves & lay on the floor {we do have a big sun umbrella up in front as well though}one likes to go off & lay in the bath,another hides under the bed,the little flat chested girl makes the most of it & gets the best bed on the cat tree & the sixth one at the moment continues to lie in the new "winter bed" that I posted photos of on the forum but when we let them out to play it is into the water as quick as they can,we have a pond & a water chute that goes between two small waterfalls,some lay in the chute,some try & get under the waterfall,Shimba normally sits with one leg up the pipe as far as he can & then the others wonder why there is no water coming down & a one of them loves nothing more than a big bowl of water to paddle around in.Me reckons they have it sussed but then while they are outside someone just has to sit with a Pimms & keep an eye on them so we all end up happy & cool....
I have to say though that we are lucky to have a garden that is fenced in but when my daughter was in the position that she couldn't let hers out she had mesh screens made up that she could put up at the windows when it was hot & they seemed to work very well.
Hector and Roxy spend a lot of their day on the stairs, we have a fan light in the living room and the have worked out which of the stairs get the best of it!
Unfortunately, I'm not yet in a position to let Freyja into the garden, especially on her own. I did get her a toy 'cat pool' but she didn't read the instructions properly and wasn't really sure what to do with it. Mind you, in the last couple of days she's started to develop the MC fondness for water games (most amusing watching her flick water from her Fountain stream across the kitchen floor, then avoid the puddles as she doesn't like wet pause - go figure). She also thoroughly enjoys beating ice cubes up. I ordered a freezer pad that you put under their bedding which arrived today so I'll try that tomorrow I think. The window screens sound a good idea and worth looking into whilst I'm waiting to make the garden cat friendly, so I'll look into that, thanks.:winkwink:
What constitutes a "heat wave" in England? Here in central US we live in A/C for most of the summer due to the heat and humidity. E.g., "heat index," which is how hot it feels to humans, has been over 100F/38C each day for the last couple of weeks, with actual daytime air temps 90-95F.
The cats are definitely not as affected by the humidity as we are. However when our one female is outside with me for half an hour now, she is obviously hot when we come in (I am absolutely soaking wet!). Still, our MC mix that spent most days outside still chose to be outside on these very hot days. We would have to insist he stay in during hottest part of the day, but he couldn't wait to go out when sun went down (of course he lost so much of his coat for the summer). They are descended from desert cats after all.
When we still had windows open before it got hot, cats would head down to cooler walk out basement if hot. They particularly like the tiled portion of the cool basement floor to lie on.
Heat wave here is anything above 24 I think. We haven't even hit 30 yet:LOL: Simba does have access to the garden and all the windows and doors are open at the moment but he tends to come indoors when it gets hot cos it is cooler. When hubby is watering the garden with the hose pipe he keeps running under it:LOL:
The only problem I have is at night as I can't open my bedroom windows wide because of Simba falling out. The window screens would be great up there - where do you get them and are they easy to fit?
I'm interested in those too. They sound great!
Any info on cat screens would be welcome here too !
We have a cellar which we use for storage, and that's where the litter trays are, so the kittens head down there to lark about in the cool and then go to sleep in the fruit & veg box, which is just the right size for them both.
It is amazing the differences in climates. As we get temps up to 45C here in summer ( i leave the air conditioner on all day when that happens) if it is 24C I would not be concerned. My cats have never been stressed or worried at that temperature and sometimes will lie on the window ledge to catch more sun!!!!.
When it is really hot here they sometimes will lie on the bathroom tiles but seem to still go outside into the fernery to lie down in the heat.
My dad who is a carpenter {retired..} made the frames up,he done them for a friend but the mesh used wasn't so good as what we eventually found to use for daughters.
The frames were made of nice wood that hooked & clipped onto the inside of the windows & from ouside you couldn't remove them so no chance of anyone being able to do anything silly.She had them on at least one side of each window that opened so you could get a nice through draft & the cats obviously loved laying there too.She also had a door made up the same way so she could leave back door open as well,all worked well as fly screen so double wammy.
No doubt our friends from the hotter parts of the world can give us propper name for that!
Could try & find out which mesh was used if any help,when she moved she took screens with her but never used them as she had room for a pen,a year later she found out that the people who had moved into the old house had been & bought a MC kitten so the frames have now returned to their original home......