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How to Keep Cats Extra Cool on a Hot Summer Day

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I’m extra protective over my cats, and I often go the extra mile to make sure that they’re comfortable. So when the summer time arrives, bringing 80+ degree days with it, I will take extra steps to make sure my babies are cool in every way possible.

When people get hot, we can sweat to cool down, grab a glass of ice water, or go to into an AC cooled store. Cats (and dogs) don’t have the same luxuries, so it’s up to us to help them stay cool. Here are a few tips for how to keep cats extra cool in the summer if you’re not able to afford central air or can’t leave a window AC unit on all day.

* Note: If you live in an area where the temperatures exceed 100 degrees regularly (hello Arizona), I definitely do not recommend ever leaving a pet inside without a proper cooling unit.

Avoid Cutting a Cat’s Hair Too Low

Some people groom their cats in the summer time as a way of keeping them cool, but after doing some research I found that leaving some hair on cats can actually help them stay cooler. So instead of shaving your kitty bald in the summer, ask your groomer to do a cut that will allow your cat to preserve some of his or her “air conditioning” fur.

Ice Water Bowl

One of the best ways to keep your cat cool is to ensure that he or she has plenty of really cold water throughout the day. If you must leave for more than a few hours, put a bowl of water in your freezer the night before and then set it out the next day. This will allow for the ice to slowly melt and stay cold for as long as possible. If your cat has an issue with knocking over his or her water bowl, see this post.

Pet Cooling Mats

I recently found a new innovation for cats and dogs that keeps them extra cool—a pet cooling mat. Your cat lays on it and experiences a cooling sensation for a few hours. This pet mat doesn’t require any electricity or a battery pack, which is a major plus. It contains a special gel that begins “recharging” as soon as your cat gets up. If you have two of them in your home, that should cover an entire summer day.

Window Fan

Cats just love to sit near open windows, no matter how hot it is outside. One way that you can keep them cool while being energy efficient is to buy a standard twin window fan. Your kitty will likely sit next to the fan and nap the afternoon away.

Turn Off the Lights…

During the day in the summertime, turn off all of the lights in your apartment or house. Open the blinds slightly instead to let some natural light into your home, or use heat blocking sheer curtains. Light bulbs often let off a lot of heat that can increase the temperature in a room by a few degrees. If you must leave a light on, make sure it’s an energy saving bulb.

Try a Mini Dehumidifier

Sometimes taking the hot muggy moisture out of the air can make a room feel cooler and more bearable. If you’re trying to save money and minimize energy usage, get a small energy efficient dehumidifier that can trap some of the moisture in one of the rooms of your house. Make sure you buy one that shuts off automatically when the water tank fills up.

Cats Instinctively Know How to Stay Cool

Cats have a biological instinct to manage their temperature and stay cool, even on hot summer days. They lick their fur, reduce activity, and find cool spots. Just keep an eye on them on the weekends when you’re home in the early morning and afternoon to see how they do on a really warm day without an AC on.

Whenever you’re able, consider buying a small, energy efficient window AC or portable AC and leave it on in one room of your house where your cats can go to enjoy some cool air.

Posted by Jade

 

Images courtesy of Amazon and Pixabay (buy someone a coffee!)

Leaving Cats Alone for Up to a Week? Here’s What to Get

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There’s debate on how long can you leave a cat alone in your home while you go on vacation or a business trip. Some say that you shouldn’t leave them alone for more than a day. That’s because some cats get separation anxiety (they want to see you regularly). Another point is that some cats have special needs, such as needing to be fed a certain type of wet food or take medication.

If you only have one cat, leaving him or her alone isn’t a great idea. They need a buddy (at least in my opinion). New kittens need plenty of attention. In those cases and others, I don’t recommend leaving your cats alone for an extended period of time. If those situations apply to your case, you should either hire a professional cat sitter or take the cat to a high quality cat boarding hotel.

Other cat lovers (including myself) believe that an extended time “home alone” is okay for our feline friends. They’re very independent animals — consider how well feral cats take care of themselves when they live outdoors. I’ve been a multi-cat owner for over 30 years, and in my experience it is possible to leave your cats alone for up to a week, once in a blue moon, but you MUST be prepared and ensure that they will have every amenity possible. In fact, you should go overboard a bit to ensure that they have *more* than what they’ll need.

I’ve created a comprehensive list of the things you should buy when leaving cats alone for up to a week. The one time cost will be around $100 – $125 and you can reuse these important cat supplies indefinitely. What’s $125 when it comes to your feline family members? At the end of this list, there are a few more important tips to keep in mind before you go on vacation or a trip and leave your cats alone, so keep scrolling!

A Hard Plastic Kiddie Pool (To Use As a Backup Litter Box)

The great thing about this kiddie pool is that you can spread the litter out in a wider diameter, that way cats have more room to find a clean spot. Make sure it’s the hard plastic kind (not the inflatables) because cats have those sharp nails! You can usually find these at Target for pickup.

Kiddie Pool Plastic

An Old School Answering Machine w/ Call Screening Feature

Why would you need an old school answering machine? So that you can call your kitties whenever you want while you’re away and say something to them! They’ll hear your voice over the machine and you can call as much as you’d like.

Answering Machine

Automatic Timed Cat Feeder with Voice Recorder

I wrote a post that goes into more detail about the benefits of having a convenient talking pet feeder in your house — especially if you have to take an extended trip away from your cats. This cat feeder distributes food at specific times of days (set by you), with just the right portion (also set by you), and also calls them to the bowl with your prerecorded voice. See the full details here.

Automatic Timed Cat Pet Feeder

UPDATE and FYI: The Homdox Feeder I reviewed is not currently available for sale, but this automatic talking feeder has gotten great reviews as well!

Cat Watering Bowl with Microban

This cat waterer has a filter, which cleans the water before it’s delivered and Microban.. Microban is a feature that has antimicrobial properties, keeping your cat’s water fresh and free from bacteria. The water container sizes range from .5 gallons to 4 gallons — decide the size that’s best for you depending on how many cats you have.

Cat Watering Bowl with Microban

A Couple of Rectangular Aluminum Pans

You can find these at you local dollar store. Use one or two to fill with dry cat food.

Aluminum Pan

At Least Two Metal Pots Filled with Frozen Water

This is a good backup option to ensure that your cats have plenty of water while you’re out of town. For some reason, I’ve found that these pots always have plenty of clean water inside when I return. Fill with water and freeze until the day you leave. Put a towel under each one so that it stays put.

Cooking Pots

Cooling Pad

Cat’s are really good at keeping cool on their own, even in very warm temperatures. But if you want to provide them with a little extra coolness in the summertime, get them a Pet Cooling Pad. It contains a special cooling gel that works for about 3-4 hours. When you cat gets up, it needs about an hour to return to its normal state and cool for another 3-4 hours.

Cat Cooling Pad

Additional Very Important Tips to Keep in Mind When You Leave Cats Alone for Up to a Week

  • Put a door stopper under EVERY OPEN DOOR in your house to ensure that your cats (or a strong wind) don’t accidentally close them.
  • For good measure, put food and water in EVERY ROOM of your house or apartment — just in case.
  • Open at least one window so that your cats can get some fresh air.
  • Leave your air conditioning system on low-medium or so to keep the air temperate in the home (not too cold, not too warm). A top quality window fan is even better if you live in an area that doesn’t get too hot in the summer and you want to avoid leaving an AC on for that time.
  • Leave your worn clothes (the ones that were headed for the laundry) out all around the house so that your cats can still smell your scent.
  • Leave a television on in the house that plays positive and uplifting music or shows (we like leaving gospel or Christian music on for our cats).
  • If you have a pair of shoes you love or a favorite outfit, put it away. Sometimes cats can be spiteful and leave you little “presents” when you leave them alone too long!
  • Don’t leave plants or items that you cat might try to eat within reach of them. When they’re left alone, they like to get adventurous.

If you’ve been thinking about temporarily leaving cats while on vacation at your house, hopefully these products and tips will help. When leaving cats alone for up to a week, you want to have peace of mind knowing that they’re all good.

Posted by Jade

How to Keep a Cat (or Dog) from Knocking Over Water Bowls

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One of my cats has a peculiar habit — he likes to go around the house knocking over any water bowl he can find. Pet experts say they do this for one or more of the following reasons:

  • He’s trying to play — it’s amusing to him.
  • He prefers to lick the water off of the floor or his paw.
  • They like to see the water in movement (which is why many cats prefer running fountain water).
  • They don’t like having to lean down over the water bowl to get a drink (in that case, I would suggest this tilt-a-bowl).

In my case, I think it’s because my cat just likes to have a little fun and get a reaction out of me! Not only does it give me a mess to clean up — it’s a waste of the crisp, cool spring water that I buy for them and could cause his siblings to go without water for a period of time until I return home.

I’ve tried a number of solutions to stop this annoyance, having learned that he’s not going to stop doing it. I tried using heavier bowls, but wouldn’t you know it — this cat is persistent. He’s a big guy, tall, lean and strong, so he can move a heavy bowl too. He will keep pushing the bowl until all of the water finally splashes out.

I also tried using velcro pads and Gorilla tape to keep the bowl in place. Again, he would stay at it — pawing at the bowl until the velcro or tape pulled the paint up from the surface.

I finally found a solution that’s easy, effective, and cheap to implement. I made a cat bowl strap. Here it is:

Cat Knocking Over Water Bowl

Here’s all you need to make this work:

Cat Knocking Over Water Bowls Solution

Get an 18″ bungee cord, a regular sized cat bowl, and a push pin like the one you see above. The items you see at the center of the green bungee cord are Command Light Clips. They only cost about $10 each and you get a lot in one package. These clips are useful in a number of applications, including routing cable cords around your house:

Command Light Clips

I chose these clips because they won’t damage the wall or your paint job (damage-free hanging). You just pull the tab on the end and it releases the hold. And let me tell you, that hold is STRONG. Make sure you are 100% decided on where you want to put the clip.

So the first step to making this cat bowl strap is to apply the command tape to the back of the 3 clips exactly as shown below:

Light Clips with Command Strips

The orientation is important here for ease of removing the command strips when needed. (If you’re left-handed, swap the bottom one from right to left-oriented.) The blue side of the command strip is applied to the clip and the black and white side is for the wall or other surface.

The next step is to attach the bottom-most command clip to the front of the bowl. By the way, I chose this particular stainless steel cat bowl because it has a rather large lip at the top and is a little heavier compared to plastic bowls. But this solution should work with any medium-sized bowl.

Command Strips Cat Bowl

Next, put the 18″ bungee cord into the clip at the front of the bowl. You can find these bungee cords at some Dollar Trees or get a pack here.

After you have this set up, apply the other two Command Clips to the wall where you want the bowl to sit. Make sure the wall is wiped down clean and completely dry to ensure that the strips will stick. It’s a good idea to set the bowl and bungee cords next to the wall to estimate where the clips should go. When you’re done applying the last two clips to the wall, loop the bungee cord hooks into them.

The final step is to put the push pin right above back of the bowl. This will prevent the bowl from being pulled forward. After everything is done, this is what it should look like:

Cat Knocking Over Water Bowl

Pet Knocking Over Water Bowls Solution

 

Because you have the open clip at the front, you can easily remove the bowl to rinse it out, then put it back in moments.

To date, my little loveable water splasher hasn’t been able to knock this bowl over or even get it to move. I like this solution because with the damage-free Command Strips, you don’t have to worry about messing up your wall or paint job. When you decide to move the bowl, just pull the strip flap and it comes off seamlessly.

Of course, this simple solution will also work for dogs who like to play with their water bowls!

An Alternative Solution That May Work for Your Cat

Another alternative (which I also have) is to buy a Drinkwell Water Fountain for Cats. He’s so obsessed with the running water dripping down that he doesn’t bother trying to move it around. The only downside is having to dismantle and clean the fountain thoroughly every 2-3 days.

So those are my solutions for how to stop your cat from knocking over water bowls. Enjoy your cats, love them and keep them hydrated!

Posted by Louise

Tips for How to Deal with Finicky Cats

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Over the years, I have had the pleasure of loving a few finicky cats in my home. Each cat had their own unique personality. I, of course, had to adjust to meet their individual criteria. Here are a couple of frustrating issues that I had to contend with and how I solved them.

Don’t Litter Where You Eat…

My first cat, Colors, was so picky at eating her food! I soon realized that it was because I had placed her food too close to her litter box. Duh, who likes to eat their food near where they relieve themselves? I know I don’t. So I made sure that her food was in a totally different room than her litter. That immediately solved that issue.

Clumping Litter Saves the Day…

My next cat, Millie, would urinate and defecate right outside of her litter box, on a daily basis. I was becoming very frustrated. I did not know what was causing this to happen. I first tried cleaning the litter box before I went to work. That didn’t help at all. I then decided to change the litter brand from non-clumping to clumping. I even began to clean her litter box twice a day, before work and before I went to bed. From the first day I began this new routine her bad habit had been broken.

Sleep in Your Own Bed Please!

Cat bed
Cat bed.

My other cat, Lucky, would never sleep in his cat bed. I would always awake to him sleeping in my bed. I decided that my scent must be bringing him comfort. So, I decided to put an old t-shirt of mine in his cat bed to see if that helped. Wow, it sure did! From there on he slept in his cat bed.

I guess what I am saying here is to be patient with your animal and use common sense when your animal has odd or strange behaviors. They will let you know what you are doing wrong, the best way that they can. It’s up to you to listen and pay attention!

Posted by Eve