Sultry Times

From stormy weather to hot: the temperature is soaring this week, up to 29 degrees Celsius (that’s 84 Fahrenheit) tomorrow, though with the humidity, The Weather Network tells me that it will feel like 38 (100 degrees Fahrenheit). That is – and this may be an opinion, an objective observation, personal to me and to no one else, but I must state that it is my belief that that is, in a word – hot.

Certainly the cats agree with me. They are dealing with the sultry weather as they usually do, seeking out cool floors and doing as little as possible, at least for the most part. However, the behaviour of my beasts still baffles me from time to time. Josie will, even on unendurably heated days, lie in the sunshine. It’s true that she will seek out the more temperate basement, where she lies comfortably on one of the library chairs, but she does this even in cold weather. Usually, though, she seeks a middle ground: the comfort of a rug, but in the shade.

Tucker imitates the dead, as he does habitually, but reposes on cool linoleum. He nonetheless resembles a sausage in a frying pan.

Tungsten’s habits have changed somewhat for the summer. Though she still enjoys lying on my lap, she has taken to enjoying the sitting room armchair, which she has not done before. Is its fabric cooler than the couch’s? I wouldn’t have thought so. But its back shields the sitter from the big picture window and, perhaps, psychologically, it feels more in shadow than other seats.

Renn is untroubled by being seen by the great outside world. When he is not perched at an open window (more on that in a future article), he likes the height of the tallest cat-tree, where he can imitate a limp rag in peace.

Bear-Bear is the only cat who keeps resorting to the bedroom on hot days. It faces west and though it does catch the evening sun, even then, the light does shine much into the room, being screened by trees. The bedroom is probably the coolest chamber in the house, and its temperature the most constant.

But I have a secret weapon to use against the blaze of summer. I have central air conditioning, which I have not possessed in previous residences, and which I use when the thermometer’s mercury passes 26 or 27 degrees. Surprisingly, it does not cost me too much. I nonetheless turn it on only come the hottest days. This morning, when I started to perspire merely pulling myself from bed, I knew that today was going to be a good example of such a time.

And so the beasts will relax in relative comfort, hopefully feeling the effects of the air conditioner, which I have selflessly turned on for their benefit alone. It’s true that I will also be within the confines of the artificially cooled house, but that is merely incidental. I am doing this for the cats. Honestly.