Heat Wave

September 28, 2010 — Heat Wave

I’m sorry — was I just complaining about cold garden hose water on my feet at three in the morning? Let that be a lesson to me.

Los Angeles set a crazy all-time heat record yesterday. It was 113 degrees downtown. We live in the south bay, where it’s never (haha! HA!) that hot, we usually have a lovely marine layer to keep things under control, and we enjoy a daily afternoon breeze. Our house, for this reason, does not need air conditioning. Uhhhh…usually. Today it was, what, over a hundred? In my living room?

We were miserable. And Jethro was miserable. Poor little dude in his little fur coat, so brand new and confused, and all of a sudden it’s probably hotter in his new home than it ever was in Sylmar (which is saying something!). The humans spent most of the day trying to keep him — and ourselves — cool and hydrated. He spent most of the day belly-up in the x-pen. I gave him ice cubes, I hosed down his belly when we went outside to the balcony to relieve, I put him in the bathtub and splashed some water on him as he stood there looking pathetic and exhausted. He even dug in his water bowl to get the sheet in the x-pen wet so he’d be comfy lying down. We had all the windows open, in the vain hope the breeze — and we are talking about a daily occurrence, this breeze — would come to our aid. Nope. Pure misery.

He woke up seven times last night. SEVEN TIMES. Every 30 minutes, for a while. I’d take him out to piddle, hose him down and put him back to bed. The neighbors do not love us, I’m sure.