The wife and I like to be eco-friendly and save energy by keeping our house at 78 during the summer. It seems like everybody else sets their thermostat at 72 or so. I read that this causes more than a doubling in charges when you live in a place like Texas, so maybe we are just being cheap rather than energy efficient. We have one short haired cat (Alley) and one very long haired cat whose fur is extra thick (Persi). When I took the cats to the vet for the first time the vet commented "my, what a furry creature you are!" referring to Persi.
I have ranted and raved on here for years about how much I brush and comb Persi and how much fur I get out of him every day. It is amazing but he still maintains an extremely dense amount of fur.
Alley likes to go out on the balcony in the morning and lay in the sun so I leave the door open for her for a while so she can sun herself. Persi wants no part of laying in the sun and has never laid on a window sill in the sun. During the summer, the most likely place to find Persi is in the sink or bathtub. We have all hardwood floors which he lays on a lot of the time. When it is not Summertime, he sleeps with us in the bed all night long but during the summer he comes up for less that an hour and jumps down and goes into the bathroom and lays on the tiles. So, it has finally dawned on me that he is suffering.
I only see two options but that is what TCS is for, to get other options that I have not considered. The only options I see are to lower the thermostat, in which case DW is going to be under blankets most of the time because we are not used to lower setting than 78 and are very comfortable at that temperature. The other option is I have seen cats on this site with "lion cuts" which would certainly cool him off. I have absolutely rejected this in the past but wonder how long it would take for the fur to grow back. Perhaps he could just have a summer cut; would it grow out by Winter? (we only have two seasons here.)
One of the cats is regularly throwing up but I cannot catch which one it is (but coincidentally started at the arrival of Summer). There is water available all over the house for them. I am beginning to think it is Persi and I think it is heat exhaustion from all his fur.
So, do we suffer the costs of higher electric bills (much higher) and sit and shiver, or do we have his long hair shaved off? This sounds like the game we used to play here on TCS called Which is the worst?
These are the only two options I see but somebody on TCS always comes up with something I have not considered. Any ideas would be appreciated!
I have ranted and raved on here for years about how much I brush and comb Persi and how much fur I get out of him every day. It is amazing but he still maintains an extremely dense amount of fur.
Alley likes to go out on the balcony in the morning and lay in the sun so I leave the door open for her for a while so she can sun herself. Persi wants no part of laying in the sun and has never laid on a window sill in the sun. During the summer, the most likely place to find Persi is in the sink or bathtub. We have all hardwood floors which he lays on a lot of the time. When it is not Summertime, he sleeps with us in the bed all night long but during the summer he comes up for less that an hour and jumps down and goes into the bathroom and lays on the tiles. So, it has finally dawned on me that he is suffering.
I only see two options but that is what TCS is for, to get other options that I have not considered. The only options I see are to lower the thermostat, in which case DW is going to be under blankets most of the time because we are not used to lower setting than 78 and are very comfortable at that temperature. The other option is I have seen cats on this site with "lion cuts" which would certainly cool him off. I have absolutely rejected this in the past but wonder how long it would take for the fur to grow back. Perhaps he could just have a summer cut; would it grow out by Winter? (we only have two seasons here.)
One of the cats is regularly throwing up but I cannot catch which one it is (but coincidentally started at the arrival of Summer). There is water available all over the house for them. I am beginning to think it is Persi and I think it is heat exhaustion from all his fur.
So, do we suffer the costs of higher electric bills (much higher) and sit and shiver, or do we have his long hair shaved off? This sounds like the game we used to play here on TCS called Which is the worst?
These are the only two options I see but somebody on TCS always comes up with something I have not considered. Any ideas would be appreciated!