We’ve talked about how staying indoors in an air-conditioned room and drinking plenty of fluids, is important with the excessive heat.  That’s not only good advice for people, but for your pets, too.  Terry Gott, the animal control officer for the Stephen Memorial Animal Shelter in Oskaloosa explains.

“Pets have a lot of fur.  They don’t sweat and cool off like we do, they have to pant.  Weather like this with this high humidity especially, it’s going to be hard for your dog or your cat to stay cool out in this weather.  I would suggest taking them inside in a cool room, if you possibly can.  If you can’t, then you need to make sure that you keep them hydrated.  Make sure that they have fresh, cool water all day long.  If nothing else, fill their water bowl up and throw some ice cubes in there to chill it off and help them cool down.”

Some of us like to take our pets along when we go shopping.  Gott recommends leaving your furry friends at home.  But if you need to take them with you on a shopping trip, keep this in mind.

“It is preferred that you do leave your vehicle running with your air conditioning on.  Because even rolling the windows down is not going to keep that animal cool in there.  It only takes ten minutes to get to a temperature in weather like this that that dog is going to be in major distress.”

Gott says if the temperature outside is 100 degrees, inside a car the temperature will get to 120 to 130 degrees within ten minutes.   And if you don’t want to be inside something that warm, your pet won’t either.