Think Snow.

[shiny!]

I'm hot. Yesterday got up to 116 degrees and my A/C died. My only 4-years old perfectly maintained A/C.

Right now it's 113 degrees outside and 95-100 degrees inside, depending on the room. The repairman came out and said it needs a new capacitor. He can't get one until tomorrow. And it's not covered under the expensive extended warranty. Of course.

I'm worried about my critters. My three cats are old and two of them are sickly. The third is just ornery. My bulldog is getting over a bad sick- almost lost her a few weeks ago. She likes being sprayed down with cold water in a spray bottle, but I tried it with the cats and all it did was p*ss them off. If looks could kill...

Feel like grumbling is all. Thanks for listening.

[BadJuju]

Re: Think Snow.

Screw summer.

By the way, cats are desert animals. They can sustain much, much higher body temperatures than humans can, so unless it is extremely humid outside, they should be more than happy. They can generally sustain a skin temperature of around 126 F before becoming uncomfortable compared to our 100 F.

[shiny!]

Re: Think Snow.

Thanks for that info. They be panting, I be sweating. Temp is down to 112 now. Humidity is 12% but it sure feels muggy.

Now 105 in my office. The thermostat in the cool part of the house topped out at 100. It now only says "HI".

[wayiwalk]

Re: Think Snow.

I had lived in an upstairs apartment in my grandmother’s house many years ago. She had horrific cat, black short haired and with a stub for a tail, named “Noel”, who I renamed “Leon” because the cat was nasty, ornery, and whatever else and it sure didn’t make me think of humming Christmas tunes.

Anyway, mid summer I was at the house to pick up some things that I had stored in the attic. Picked them up, closed the entrance door to the attic, bid adieu to granny, and was on my way.

A heat wave passed through the area that week. Temps in the high 90’s (hey, everything is relative, this was on Long Island).

I was back at her house the following week. She mentioned she hadn’t seen the cat for a week. I was thinking, “good. That demon decided to hit the road”.

Then it dawned on me…..the cat might have snuck into the attic that day I was there.

I rush upstairs, open the attic door.

A huge HISSSSS!!!!!! as the cat rushes past me out of the attic downstairs into the house.

I look at the inside of the attic door and see the paw/scratch marks…..nearly 6 days in 100+ temps in the attic with no water. Ouch.

I went downstairs to see my grandmother cuddling her cute sweet noel.

Forever after, the cat held a grudge against me, however, and I never could get even remotely close to it without it hissing and trying to scratch me.

Dang thing, it was its own fault!

But – it told me that cats are really tough creatures, the lore of nine lives was based in some truth.

I hope you’ve had some relief from the heat.

[shiny!]

Re: Think Snow.

Wow, what an amazing story! I've heard about cats surviving long periods of deprivation (like being stuck in the wall of a mobile home being moved across the country), but you actually witnessed it.

The house cooled off by Monday night, so 48 hours of heat in all. My oldest cat, Gracie, bounced back the quickest. She's weighs 6 pounds tops, and has lost about 90% of her kidney function. She's 18.

I also have an 11 year-old deaf white cat with triaditis, a 12 year-old Tonkinese and a 4 year-old American Bulldog. The tonk has no health problems, just a rotten attitude. The bulldog was recovering from a bad bout of ulcerative colitis when the heat hit. I was terribly worried about them. They took a day longer to bounce back, but everybody is fine now.

I got a wicked case of heat exhaustion, but was OK by Saturday. I think Grace is going to outlive us all. She's about 90 in human years and still zooms around like a tiny little rocket. Torties have attitude.

[lektrode]

Re: Think Snow.

well i sure hope all is well with you and the kitties over there ms shiny!

when eye saw that link show up on 'new posts', natch, i got all rev'd up, expecting to see something about a summer blizzard or some such - after getting sunbaked out of my annual spring skiing excursion by the blast of 100+ deg wx that SLC had back in april

they been getting scorched the past few weeks again too - bounced off 105 a couple weeks back = quite unusual for june/early july, i'm told - reservoirs dropping fast too...

[shiny!]

Re: Think Snow.

well i sure hope all is well with you and the kitties over there ms shiny!

when eye saw that link show up on 'new posts', natch, i got all rev'd up, expecting to see something about a summer blizzard or some such - after getting sunbaked out of my annual spring skiing excursion by the blast of 100+ deg wx that SLC had back in april

they been getting scorched the past few weeks again too - bounced off 105 a couple weeks back = quite unusual for june/early july, i'm told - reservoirs dropping fast too...

I hear you about reservoirs dropping. This year's monsoon has brought us nothing so far but humidity, lightening and maybe two drops of rain. At least it's not so hot today. Only about 102 right now.

[flintlock]

Re: Think Snow.

Sucks when a $10 part knocks out your AC. Especially one you can't just pull off a shelf at the local Home depot. Grainger should have it if you have those out there. It would have to be some tough circumstance before I'd leave a customer in a lurch with temps like that. Was it an after hours service call or something? You would think an extended warranty cover the capacitor! If I'm not mistaken even the manufacturers warranty would cover that. Hmm. If you were a few thousand miles closer I'd swap it out for you.

[flintlock]

Re: Think Snow.

I had lived in an upstairs apartment in my grandmother’s house many years ago. She had horrific cat, black short haired and with a stub for a tail, named “Noel”, who I renamed “Leon” because the cat was nasty, ornery, and whatever else and it sure didn’t make me think of humming Christmas tunes.

Anyway, mid summer I was at the house to pick up some things that I had stored in the attic. Picked them up, closed the entrance door to the attic, bid adieu to granny, and was on my way.

A heat wave passed through the area that week. Temps in the high 90’s (hey, everything is relative, this was on Long Island).

I was back at her house the following week. She mentioned she hadn’t seen the cat for a week. I was thinking, “good. That demon decided to hit the road”.

Then it dawned on me…..the cat might have snuck into the attic that day I was there.

I rush upstairs, open the attic door.

A huge HISSSSS!!!!!! as the cat rushes past me out of the attic downstairs into the house.

I look at the inside of the attic door and see the paw/scratch marks…..nearly 6 days in 100+ temps in the attic with no water. Ouch.

I went downstairs to see my grandmother cuddling her cute sweet noel.

Forever after, the cat held a grudge against me, however, and I never could get even remotely close to it without it hissing and trying to scratch me.

Dang thing, it was its own fault!

But – it told me that cats are really tough creatures, the lore of nine lives was based in some truth.

I hope you’ve had some relief from the heat.

Good story! I've had customer's cats follow me up in attics before. Hopefully none ended up cooked .

I once was at a red light and noticed the car behind me flashing lights and blowing the horn. The man ran up to my window and said, " Do you know you have a cat on your roof?!" My Calico had fallen asleep up on the roof of my service van, hidden by the ladder racks. I was 25 miles from home and had been doing 70mph down the highway. So I'm at the light, stopping traffic, while I pull out a ladder and get my cat off the roof. Our relationship was never the same.

[lektrode]

Re: Think Snow.

..... Our relationship was never the same.

nyuk nyuk nyuk... but coulda been worse, eh?
i like stories with happy endings.

and if'n i was ms shiny! ?
i'd be right down to homedepot and git me a spare window-ac unit - can get em for less than 200bux = priceless when the main unit croaks

[shiny!]

Re: Think Snow.

Sucks when a $10 part knocks out your AC. Especially one you can't just pull off a shelf at the local Home depot. Grainger should have it if you have those out there. It would have to be some tough circumstance before I'd leave a customer in a lurch with temps like that. Was it an after hours service call or something? You would think an extended warranty cover the capacitor! If I'm not mistaken even the manufacturers warranty would cover that. Hmm. If you were a few thousand miles closer I'd swap it out for you.

Thanks for the kind offer of help.

It was the contactor that burnt, causing the compressor to not turn on. When it burned out, it also damaged the capacitor. The big parts warehouse that all the A/C repair companies use around here is closed from 4pm Friday until Monday morning. Anyone whose A/C dies on the weekend is SOL if their repairman doesn't have the needed part in their truck. Doesn't that seem incredibly STUPID and DANGEROUS for the A/C parts supplier to be closed on any day during the summer, in a place where people DIE without A/C?

Murphy dictates that critical appliances break and pets become deathly ill on weekends. The system died Saturday evening. Repairman didn't get to my house until 2pm Sunday. He didn't have the parts he needed on his truck. On Monday, he didn't get it fixed until 10:30am. The house didn't cool off until that night. The owner of the company at least knocked the price down from $415 to $235. He said that was his cost for the parts. I'll never know...

Yesterday a neighbor suggested exactly what lektrode said: get a window unit installed for when the central air breaks. I don't know why I never thought of that before! I have a portable space heater in case the central heat ever goes out, so why didn't I think to have a window A/C as a backup? Going to have my handyman install one this week!

[shiny!]

Re: Think Snow.

Good story! I've had customer's cats follow me up in attics before. Hopefully none ended up cooked .

I once was at a red light and noticed the car behind me flashing lights and blowing the horn. The man ran up to my window and said, " Do you know you have a cat on your roof?!" My Calico had fallen asleep up on the roof of my service van, hidden by the ladder racks. I was 25 miles from home and had been doing 70mph down the highway. So I'm at the light, stopping traffic, while I pull out a ladder and get my cat off the roof. Our relationship was never the same.

My boss' daughters were driving down the freeway when they exited and came to a stop light. They heard meowing. Pulled off the road, opened the hood and found their young cat clinging desperately to a pipe in the engine. His paws were badly burned. They had driven 20 miles on the freeway with that poor kitty clinging to the engine. He's fine now. Some cats are forgiving, some cat's never forgive.

If you ever have a traumatized pet, try Rescue Remedy. I've used it on a sensitive little Whippet mix dog who got attacked and almost killed by a big dog. The dog had bitten him on the neck and almost choked him to death. After that event he couldn't bark or howl anymore. His eyes had a permanently haunted look, and he stopped playing.

About a year later someone suggested Rescue Remedy. I put a few drops in his water dish and forgot about it.

About an hour later I saw him drink some water. About five minutes later, his eyes lost their haunted look and he started playing with an old sock. He drank some more. About a half hour later, an ambulence drove by with the siren on, and he let out a loud, beautiful, baying howl. It was the first noise he had made since the attack. The dog had been traumatized for a year. After two doses of Rescue Remedy in his water he was returned to normal. It's amazing stuff. Works for people too.

[lektrode]

Re: Think Snow.

....dog had been traumatized for a year. After two doses of Rescue Remedy in his water he was returned to normal. It's amazing stuff. Works for people too.

that sounds interesting... so ms shiny! - did you put a few drops in your water to find out, or what?
is it good straight up, or better with a mixer, on the rocks?
inquiring minds are eager to learn more about this amazing stuff...
;)

[shiny!]

Re: Think Snow.

that sounds interesting... so ms shiny! - did you put a few drops in your water to find out, or what?
is it good straight up, or better with a mixer, on the rocks?
inquiring minds are eager to learn more about this amazing stuff...
;)

Here ya go:

Rescue Remedy at Amazon.

Some people put a few drops of the liquid remedy straight under their tongue. I was taught to put a dropper full of concentrate into a 1-ounce amber glass dropper bottle, then fill with pure water. I'll put a dropper full of diluted mixture (or 4-5 drops of concentrate) into a glass of pure water and sip it. (It doesn't work as reliably when I use chlorinated tap water.)

For stressed pets, I put a dropper-full of the mixture (or 4-5 drops of concentrate) in their water bowl. Flower remedies are delicate and shouldn't be exposed to strong odors like perfumes, raw onion or garlic, or Xrays, microwave radiation, and the like.

I know that sceptics say that homeopathic medicine can't work because it doesn't contain measurable amounts of medicinal substances. But I think it does contain something of a vibrational nature, only we don't yet have the tools with which to see it or measure it.

While it could just be a placebo effect, I think there's more to it than that. I've seen Rescue Remedy work too many times on animals and babies when no one was giving them cues that might effect their behavior. In fact, it seems to work better on animals and babies because they aren't telling themselves it can't work. I've seen it work on upset adults who didn't even know they were getting it when I handed them a glass of water. When it comes to experimenting with vibrational medicines like homeopathy or Bach Flower Remedies, of which Rescue Remedy is a blend, I try to have a neutral mind and ignore both the hard-core sceptics as well as the hard-core "true believers".

In my experience, Rescue Remedy hasn't worked every time, but it's worked enough times that I think it's worth recommending. YMMV ;-)

[lektrode]

Re: Think Snow.

Here ya go:

Rescue Remedy at Amazon....
......
In my experience, Rescue Remedy hasn't worked every time, but it's worked enough times that I think it's worth recommending. YMMV ;-)

hmmm... will have to give it a whirl - sounds kinda like 5-HTP ?
which seems to work for me about 1/2 the time i take it (altho when i really need to sleep and cant, the ole 'vitamin Z' is tuff to beat, esp on long redeye flights)