Weather Extremes - Remember Your Pet!

When the weather is too terrible for you to go or stay outside, don't forget your pet. Most pets can suffer too, when Nature gives us extreme weather. 


At the moment, South Australia, where I live, has a forecast of 39 degrees celsius, with rain expected in the afternoon and evening. 39 degrees celsius is 102 Fahrenheit, that's too hot for me and for my dogs! So at the moment, I'm staying inside, and so are the four dogs. 


Our other pets are goldfish. They live in a deep pond outside, with shade. If it's too hot for them at the top of their pond, they have plenty of cool water further down. I know they'll be fine out there. Some fish aren't so lucky, if your fish are in the sunshine on a very hot day, and they're in a shallow pond, it can get extremely dangerous for them.


Pet owners must realise the responsibilities they take on, when they get a pet. If my dogs were outside, and they didn't have shade and water available, it could become life threatening for them. I'm a responsible pet owner who cares, so I keep my dogs inside where it's cool, and I make sure they have water to drink if they want it.

Dogs in hot weather

I am so glad the hot weather has gone! We've had the evap cooler going almost non-stop for a week and a half and I'm sick of it.

Our dogs don't seem to have minded - they've been inside where it's cool almost no-stop too. They flake out on the tiles, or on the carpet under the outlets and only get up if they absolutely have to.

I've heard some terrible stories about dogs left outside and people coming home to dead or dying canine friends. I don't know how I'd live with the guilt if that happened to me. Well, I do have some idea about how I'd feel. We've had some tragic losses in our fish pond in the last week. Things just got too hot for some of our goldfish.

I've put big blocks of ice in the pond on a couple of days, and sprayed cold water in the pond to help the fish cool down. Our fish numbers have plummeted to only three, and I do feel some guilt about that.

I care about the fish, but I don't love them like I love the dogs. I like the fish, but I don't feel fish are people, like dogs are. Dogs have their own character, and they are friends and family members.