Sunday, August 14, 2005

Riddle Me This, Catman......(with apologies)

Why in heaven's name do cats like to bake in 100* heat when they could be in a nice air-conditioned house and have quick access to fresh water and food?

For the last month or so, we have been under an extreme heat wave (as have a lot of you) and my cats have asked (nay begged) to go outside and lie in the garage all day long, where the temperature hovers around 90* and the water dish does too. I cannot understand it, especially since they are black. When they lie in the sun, their fur feels like it might spontaneously erupt in flames.

11 comments:

srp said...

I don't know but it is a universal thing. One of our ragdoll cats does this. She has so much fur it can't possibly be fun. Even the dog begs to go in a carrier in the air conditioned house. In fact, my dad is going to make an alteration to his dog house and put in a small air conditioner like we had in the Mississippi dog house. Lucky mutt.

OldHorsetailSnake said...

I thought everybody knew how to store up sunshine for the coming winter. I guess in North Carolina only the cats know it.

Anonymous said...

They must be tropical beings. I'm not!

Heather said...

Maybe they like the humidity?

Anonymous said...

We have a black dog. She does the same thing.

Duke_of_Earle said...

Hey! Welcome back. I had gotten out of the habit of checking you daily, and look at you now!

I LOVED "Ray." EXCELLENT. I also grew up with his music and loved scenes like the one where he and the Singers did "Hit the Road, Jack."

I also recently rented (Netflix) "Spanglish." If you haven't seen it, do. It's actually clean(!), and I laughed out loud a number of times.

Last subject: cats and heat. I was amazed during my Africa trip to find lions in the Serengeti sprawled out on a rock in the direct sun at mid day when there was shade nearby. The surface temp on that rock had to be high enough to singe their fur. Go figure!

John

Anonymous said...

Years ago, I raised Manx cats and had an indoor cattery with an outside screened-in porch and a kitty door between the two. Since it can be very hot here on the desert, the first thing that I did was air-condition the cattery. You guessed it. They immediately turned their noses up and headed out the kitty door and the 100 degree heat. Go figure!
It is good to be back from vacation and thank you for your comments and for reading my vacation blog.

Anonymous said...

My cat will find whatever ray of sun may be shining in the house, however scant, and bask full on in the middle of it. I always attributed it to her pea sized brain. :-)

Anonymous said...

Yup. Our cats have always done the same thing. Aren't cats originally desert animals? Or am I making that up?

amarkonmywall said...

They transcend their physical beings and hover about 5' 4" away routinely.

dena said...

They're cats! They are creatures of surprise. Switching up what you expect, and ending up with the least likely result.

Visiting from Michele's.