How to Keep your Cat Cool in the Heat

Like all cats, I enjoy warm weather. I'm also pretty good at keeping myself cool but, in a heat wave, I could do with a little extra help from you.

While you're organising chilled treats for yourself and keeping out of the heat, spare a thought for your cat who can't take a quick shower or get a cold drink from the fridge.

1. Leave plenty of fresh water around
2. Arrange a cool sleeping spot for me
3. Keep me inside during the hottest part of the day

I'm an indoor cat myself but, when I do venture outside, I have a cool, shady place under a bush all ready and waiting.

If you don't have these cool garden spots for your cat, rig up an area with shadecloth or some similar covering.

If it's just too hot outside, keep me in. Better to be safe than sorry.

1. Keep your house cool. Close the windows if it's hotter out than in, lower the blinds and draw the drapes
2. Organise a cool spot for me on the bathroom tiles or somewhere in the coolest room
3. Keep checking my water bowl!

The best place in the house is a dark room.

Like a lot of cats, I like to chill out in the bathroom on hot afternoons. The sink is a good spot but these days I'm not so keen on jumping and scrabbling around on porcelain, so I choose the floor.

On hot days, the woman has an old towel for my bed there but, if it's really, really, really hot, I like to lie directly on the tiles. Perhaps your cat would feel comfy in the laundry? If this room is normally bright and sunny, you can hang dark sheets over the windows.

No matter how enticing the icy draught from the fridge may be, do NOT get inside.

Some cats like ice cubes in their water bowl or even an ice cube to lick.

It's not my personal choice, I don't like any food or drink which is too hot or too cold, I'm a Senior and my teeth have seen better days.

But Seniors like me need extra care in a Heat Wave as we're a little slower at cooling down than we used to be.

I like a hot water bottle filled with cold water from the tap (and an ice cube or two added). The woman-who-feeds-me places a bottle like this next to my Summer sleeping mat so I can lie against it. Notice that I said "against", not "on"? I don't like to lie on a wibbly wobbly water bottle but your cat might like it. Give it a try.

If you see that I'm leaving wet pawprints through the house then you can be pretty sure that I'm HOT.

I sweat through my paws, just like dogs do. I need more water.

Some cats don't mind their paws being dipped in cool water, but I'm not one of them. I do, however, really appreciate a little wipe with a cool, damp sponge.

And ahhhhhh! I really like to chill out with a cooling mat on the hottest of days

You can hang a wet towel (it doesn't have to be dripping) next to the fan so that colder air gets circulated around.

I always appreciate this and, strangely enough, the woman sits next to it too!

On a very hot day you may think that I'm grooming myself excessively. This just means that I'm hot.

It's a cooling mechanism similar to sweating and, as the saliva evaporates off my fur, I cool down a little.

Should you shave your furry cat in Summer? I say NO.

Then again, I'm a sleek, short-haired cat and, apart from the odd hairball at the end of Winter, I have no trouble with my fur at all.

Once I shared the house with a Norwegian Forest Cat and the woman asked at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital if shaving should be done in the heat of High Summer. The Vet there explained that cats need their fur in all weathers.

Cat fur provides insulation from both the heat and the cold.

Long haired cats will shed and groom themselves a lot more in the Summer months. The grooming cools them down since the saliva acts the same way that sweat works for humans. The shedding is just the cat continuously losing her undercoat to keep cool.

So shaving isn't necessary and can actually be harmful to a cat.

No fur? Our protection is gone!