Leaving a pet in the house on vacation. Windows open or closed?
July 12, 2012 8:48 AM   Subscribe

Leaving a pet in the house on vacation. Windows open or closed?

We're going on vacation and leaving our cat at home with daily visits by the in-laws. I'd like to keep it as cool as possible in the house, but we have no AC and whatever house set-up will be fixed for the duration of the trip.

Highs will be about 90 and overnight lows about 50. We have a modern, well insulated two-story house.

Close all the windows or crack some second story ones?
posted by elmonobonobo to Home & Garden (16 answers total)
 
Would you be comfortable in a house with all closed windows when it's 90 degrees outside? I wouldn't. If you can crack your windows from the top down a few inches (less noticeable that they're open), that's what I would do.
posted by phunniemee at 8:52 AM on July 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


If your in-laws are ammenable to this, I recommend opening the windows in the evening and closing them back up in the morning. This is what we did when we were without power for a week recently. If that isn't possible, keep em closed. By opening them up, you're just letting all the hot air in during the day and having them open at night does not mitigate this (I know this from living in Denver with no a/c and experimenting). The first few days we lost power we just kept the house closed up (this was during a heatwave too) and the top floor got a little warm, but the first floor stayed fairly cool.
posted by Kimberly at 8:52 AM on July 12, 2012


I'd say open. It will help your cat stay cool and also provide him/her with stimulation from sounds and smells from the outdoors.
posted by Fister Roboto at 8:52 AM on July 12, 2012


Do you have a basement? Can you set it up so the cat can spend most of its time there?
posted by jon1270 at 8:55 AM on July 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Depends, for me, on the humidity situation. If you live someplace humid I'd keep the place closed up tight and try to have one room that is dark that will not turn into an oven with all the sunshine. When it's 90 outside here, my house stays pretty temperate in the room with the tightly drawn blinds and is even cooler under the bed where the light doesn't go.
posted by jessamyn at 9:06 AM on July 12, 2012 [3 favorites]


Seconding what Kimberly said. If possible, windows open at night and closed/shades drawn during the day.

If your in-laws don't want to deal with opening and closing the windows, I'd suggest leaving the upstairs windows open, getting a fan for downstairs, and seeing it in front of the steps facing up. When I need to air out my house a little but it's 80+ degrees outside, I do that by the back door. Keeps the hot air from coming in (or down, in your case) and having the windows open gives it a way to escape.
posted by Urban Winter at 9:10 AM on July 12, 2012


Closed, but that is specific to my house. My downstairs will stay cool while upstairs is hot. My cats are smart enough to choose what suits them. Also agree with Jessamyn that the humidity would be a critical factor in the decision, not just temp.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:22 AM on July 12, 2012 [3 favorites]


When it's really hot, my cats hang out in the bathrooms. Ours don't have windows, so it's dark and cool, the cats congregate around the toilets mostly. I usually keep bowls of cool water in there, so they hardly have to move to drink. I think it doesn't matter that much, really, as long as there is one room that stays dark and cooler during the day, the cat knows how to find a comfy spot.
posted by upatree at 10:37 AM on July 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Get one of those fans that sits in the window frame for the upstairs. Put it on a timer to push hot air out at night.

You will also need to consider where cool air will come into the house from, and it's path through the house. Ideally you'd bring air in through the area your pet has access to, but even if you just crack a window on the opposite side of the upstairs it should help things.

If the in-laws aren't physically able to open windows, they might not deal with the heat well either. You might ask them if there is a particular configuration they would prefer.

Get several of those "blue ice" type cooler bricks and ask your in-laws to rotate a new pair of them out of the freezer each day to a comfy kitty spot.

It would be best to try a few configurations for 24 hours each to see how they work.
posted by yohko at 11:01 AM on July 12, 2012


Closed. Your cat will be fine.
cats are able to tolerate quite high temperatures: humans generally start to feel uncomfortable when their skin temperature passes about 44.5 °C (112 °F), but cats show no discomfort until their skin reaches around 52 °C (126 °F),:46 and can tolerate temperatures of up to 56 °C (133 °F) if they have access to water.
In my house, you are most likely to find my black cat sitting in sunshine, even in the middle of summer.

If you have a basement, leave the door open so they can access it. Otherwise leave the bathrooms open. She'll lay on the cool tile and be fine.
posted by royalsong at 11:24 AM on July 12, 2012 [4 favorites]


I agree with royalsong. As long as she has access to fresh water, she'll be fine either way, especially with someone checking on her every day (which seems like overkill to me).
posted by desjardins at 11:37 AM on July 12, 2012


Yeah, make sure they have water/food but unless it gets way, way hotter than 90 they will be fine (and possibly enjoy it!). My attic gets to mind-numbing temperatures in the summer (since its not A/C'd and I live in Southern California) and yet my cats _choose_ to hang out up there all day even though they could be in the nice air conditioned first story...

Although a window fan in an upper room blowing out certainly wouldnt hurt and might give a release valve in case temps hit well over 100 or something (dont know if thats possible where you are).
posted by wildcrdj at 12:23 PM on July 12, 2012


I vote for upstairs windows if they can't be used to break in. I only say this because a friend left a window open for her cats recently and someone cut open the screen and robbed her place.
posted by luckynerd at 12:25 PM on July 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


When I was in a house, I always left second story windows open in this situation. (Actually, I did even though it was rarely ever that hot in the summer in my house - just for the fresh air.) But that was because they second story windows were almost always open in the summer anyway, there isn't a high risk of crime in my neighbourhood and my cats have never broken through the screens. So you might want to weigh in that factor, too.
posted by Kurichina at 12:26 PM on July 12, 2012


Seconding blue ice and putting ice cubes in the drinking water. Using a heavy ceramic dish will keep the water cooler longer. Put it in in a first floor bathroom with a small fan. Kitties will be fine.
posted by BlueHorse at 2:35 PM on July 12, 2012


In my split level house it stays coolest on the really hot days when we shut everything down in the daytime. Windows closed, drapes closed and sometimes we hang blankets on the window that gets the hot afternoon sun. We close the doors to the rooms that have windows with the most sun.

To keep really comfortable we open the windows up in the evening and then shut it back down next morning. Is there anyway your inlaws could do a twice daily visit? Like 10 am and 7 pm??

But- that being said I think they will be fine with windows and drapes closed, especially with access to a cellar with the windows closed up.
posted by beccaj at 7:23 PM on July 12, 2012


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