So here's the situation, i live in an apartment with a fairly terrible mid 80s looking wall mounted A/C unit. Most of the time i never even consider using it, because at half power you can barely tell that anything is cooling down. Normally this is no big deal because my "little" lynx point siamese is generally content regardless of the weather.

However, this week my area is experiencing a pretty awful heat wave. Yesterday it was 115 F for most of the day and stepping outside felt like walking into an oven. I left my cat with two fans running and his usual giant drinking fountain and it didnt seem worse than 90ish in the place. He did not do well for the day. I came home and he was exhausted from the heat and panting. Today he faired a bit better, for half the day he visited my parents house w/ central air, and when it cooled down from the high of 109 F, i brought him home and closed off a room so the fans would a smaller area to cool and put down a second watering dish.

This won't really be an option tomorrow. He played a little too rough with my parent's cats and started lightly growling and tried to play fight with everyone(people included). Plus he gets too excited to eat or drink, which just sort of adds to the problem.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

May sound silly, but I put a fan in my bathroom pointed on the tiles when I had A/C problems... Max and Faust zoomed in for the sprawl as the tile was the coolest in the house. You can also try towels in the freezer (not wet, just dry) or fridge for a bit and toss them on the floor, the coolness will be residual for awhile. It was total chaos at our house when the temp hit 93*F inside the last time the air conditioner broke two months ago. I'd put water bowls in every room and one in the bathtub (it may encourage him to chill in there a bit). Unfortunately, there's not much else I can think of that worked for us, other than a lot of petting and deshedding stuff to loosen and pull out any undercoat as the heat made them drop massive amounts of hair. Never seen anything quite like that.

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Alternatively, move to Britain and never worry about warm weather ever again!

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Lollo

Oh, you must be dealing with the heat wave in the southwest.

I would probably lock him in a bathroom with a fan and some bowls with water and ice cubes. If you have a sink with a counter top you can try filling the sink with ice, I am sure some of the cold will transfer and he could lay on the counter and play with the melting ice. Maybe there is a place you can board him until the heat wave passes?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna try the frozen blanket tomorrow. Today i did an experiment using a pair of ice cube trays and the entrance tile. It didn't work quite the way i had hope, but the immediate area around the trays cooled a little and i *think* it made enough of a difference. He layed out on that tile all day and tonight he is being the same loud, hyper, and obnoxious siamese that i love.

Another idea i'm kicking around is to see if it will be feasible to train him to like water. Then i could just leave a little water in the tub and head to work. I think the basic ingredients are there, he doesn't have a terror reaction to water. For instance when i shower he pokes his head into through the curtain and gets misted in the face. And while letting him drink from a faucet, he plopped his butt into the sink and let the water cover his whole backside before calmly moving away.

Some videos i saw on youtube look like ping pong balls or a gold fish can help get them in the water. We'll see.

I might try some of these ideas myself. We've been holding steady in the mid 90's this holiday weekend. The air is on, no problem. But our electric company has let us know that next Saturday the power will be out from 7-5 as they replace some poles. I can escape for the day, but I can't take my 3 cats with me.

I thought about filling the tub with an inch of water and tossing in some ice cubes. Maybe do the same for the kitchen and bathroom sinks. We'll probably fire up our generator. It won't run the central air, but I can keep the fans going.

I currently keep all the miniblinds shut [except for about 8 inches at the bottom for the cats] and have the dark curtains pulled shut. I live in a cave during the hottest months. Funny thing is, the cats always find that ONE speck of sunbeam that filters through. All three will be laying on the floor at the same spot like they are freezing and it's the only way to warm up!

Relax



Rob

Its currently ranging from around 78-86 in the UK atm - I have to say Im not a fan of fans (pardon the pun) All they seem to do is circulate the warm air even more and don't really solve the issue.

I have large windows in my house - so I tend to half pull the curtains/blinds across all windows and then open windows (I have protective covering to stop any escaping) its amazingly cool in the house and non of the animals seem to be suffering. In fact a couple of mine are residing in the conservatory where its above 86! Nutters!

Usually cool floors are good- so tiled, laminated etc to keep them cool and obviously as mentioned plenty of water. I've done towels soaked in water before now and they avoid them like the plague

And I thought my Bengal was special since he loves to lay and sleep on his back, exposing his belly, with his back legs spread wide open! I think it's the cutest thing ever.

Luckily, I have central a/c and it runs from the end of May through the first part of September. Have lots of tile floors and Raiden loves laying on them. I keep ice cubes in his water, too. We do have to deal with the heat on our walks but I am trying to take them first thing in the morning or late in the evening just before dark. He doesn't seem to be bothered as much by the heat as I am. But I know the concrete and asphalt are hot on his little pads.