Heat and animals.

I diversify for a moment......young mothers with there first babies? How many times during the summer do we either see a baby with no screening from the sun, or the opposite extreme where the baby is dressed in hat, coat etc. The opposite also applies in winter, mother's got a coat on and the baby with very little to keep it warm. My point is if these people were only to stop and think about the way they are dressed and feeling either hot or cold, how come they don't seem to be able to treat their child the same, it just doesn't seem to occur to them! The percentage of those same mothers have dogs or other animals that suffer because of their lack of thought.....or don't they think! The mind boggles!

 

These past few days it's even been too hot for my two cats!!! I'm keeping the blinds down to try to reduce the heat, windows are wide open and it's STILL too warm for all four of us (2 cats, hubby & myself!)....Chilli an Lily spend the hottes parts of the day either under our bed or in the bathroom or kitchen where the floor is tiles. When I had my whippet we would be out at 6 or 7am and then indoors until around 8pm with a last walk at 10pm.....no way would I risk her overheating If she needed a quick toilet break it would be the 2 minutes' walk to the grassy area near the horse fields then straight back home.

I told a customer off this morning for dragging her two dogs out yesterday afternoon in the boiling heat!!! I'm normally polite but stupidity towards animals (and babies!) makes my blood boil and I have to speak up

 

@Sheal @Lolimac @Gillykat - when I was growing up, it was not unusual (nor unexpected!) for *someone* to pull you up if they thought what you were doing was thoughtless/rude/plain daft! That would be neighbours, people who knew you from the local community and, sometimes if warranted, people who didn't have a clue *who* you were, just that *what* you were doing was (at best) ill advised or (at worst) downright illegal!
Sadly, today, you risk either being verbally abused, threatened or told (in no uncertain terms!) to mind your own business!
Today, people are not growing up with that same culture of sense of community, societal/collective responsibility - which I grew up understanding at a base level from a young age.
Today, people are growing up with an ethos of "individualism", "do-wot-I-want-and-blow-pobs-to-what-you-fink: innit!" /rights!

It impacts on people who keep animals; people who bring up children; people who live next door to you/your street/your area. It impacts on how dependent/independent/secure/insecure people feel - generally! And so on ad infinitum!

I suppose, this is the way of things today and we have to adjust and adapt to it if we are to go with the flow?

As an aside: I was hearing on the news that there is an increase in cases of rickets and scurvy (! Yes you read right!) in recent years... all nutrition based ... modernity really is killing us inch by inch

 

i always keep our bichon frise Snoop's hair clipped short at this time of year as his coat is like wool and really holds the heat, Freddy our long haired chihuahua doesnt seem to mind the heat at all as he has very little undercoat thank goodness they go for their walks late in the evening on hot days but when we venture out on warm days and/or if we're going to be gone long we bring a small gym bag with a bottle of water and small bowl (plus stuff like emergency spare lead ect) for the dogs and upon returning home i always knock a tray of icecubes into their water bowl (our old boy Polo who passed away always got a bowl of milky water straight after his walk as a treat, nice and cold from the fridge ) i tend to give the boys bellies, feet, faces and legs a quick mini wash straight after their walks as being so close to the ground they can get incredibly grubby i originally did this as purely a hygiene thing but getting them good n soggy wet when theyre too warm does of course help them to cool down tremendously

 

Reggie's off to be stripped tomorrow