CAT TALES – The cat days of summer – The Gadsden County Times

Folks often talk about the ‘Dog Days of Summer’ referring to the hot months of July and August.

This saying dates back to the early days of the Roman Empire when it was believed that the rising of the dog star, Sirius, was linked to the heat they were feeling.

Of course, none of that was scientifically true but the term lingers on, and I will say the dog at our house lazes through these hot months as though he believes they are named for him.

He does not chase his ball.

He does not jump on and off the furniture. He does not race around barking his head off at nothing.

He lays around dozing most of the time in the air conditioning and doesn’t even take that much interest in eating, one of his usual favorite pastimes.

He enjoys just being cool and lazy.

I believe the dog is acting in a reasonable fashion, considering the way I feel in all this heat.

On the other hand, I do not understand the behavior of the cats during ‘the dog days of summer’.

They don’t chase their catnip toys around either.

They don’t run around jumping on and off the furniture either.

They also doze a lot.

The reason they puzzle me so much is where they do their dozing.

I have a huge screened-in porch, which they consider their domain.

They love to spend their time out there, watching the birds and squirrels and deer.

They drag their toys out there and toss them around.

When the temperatures dip in the winter, they go through the pet door and curl up in front of the fireplace for their snoozing.

In this hot steamy weather, they do not go through the pet door to enjoy the air conditioning.

They are less active, but they spend all their time on that porch

The porch is not quite as hot as lying in the sweltering sun, but it is very hot.

These cats are wearing fur coats.

Beebe’s hair is very long and fluffy. In addition, he is grossly overweight, which should make him more susceptible to the heat.

Yet, he insists on staying on that porch. Momau is slimmer and has short hair, but still she is covered in her golden mane which must be uncomfortable when the air dries out my nostrils when I just walk out on the porch. Yet she curls up in the pillows on the chairs and snores away.

Needless to say, I worry about these two. I keep a large bowl of water on the porch, which I keep putting ice cubes in.

Beebe refuses to drink from it until the ice cubes melt. She apparently doesn’t like water with icebergs in it. Momau doesn’t drink that water at all.

She drinks the water from the reservoirs under the plants on the porch. I have quit fertilizing the

plants because I fear she will be poisoned by the chemicals.

I bought a rotating fan for them and I try to line it up so that it will hit each of them at some time during the rotation.

This is a waste of my time.

They apparently are annoyed by the wind on their body and get up and move. What is a cat mother to do?

They do come in the house to eat twice a day, and I try to entice them to stay inside, but they eat and run.

Yes, they run right back out that cat door onto the porch where they are so content.

One day I decided to close the pet door and trap them inside.

This was a bad idea.

They clawed at it, severely defacing it, yowling the whole time.

I could have ignored this, I guess, but since their kitty litter box is on the porch, I gave in and unblocked their gateway to paradise.

After giving me a reproachful look, they returned to their fluffy porch beds, settled down in their self-imposed sauna and blissfully dozed off.

Apparently, those Romans didn’t have cats, or there are no cat stars, or cats are just so darned independent that even the Romans had no idea what to do with them in the summer heat.

All I can believe is that cats have survived for thousands of years without the stars, the Romans, or my help and I guess they will survive until fall.

I know they are not dogs. I know they are not horses. I now know you can lead them to fans, air conditioning and water, but you cannot make them partake.

More later, Judy and the cats - P.S. Please don’t report me to PETA. I’m trying.

CAT TALES – The cat days of summer

Gadsden County Times – Legals – 7/27

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