On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:40:41 -0500, "cagney"
wrote:

If it is too cold for you then it's too
cold for them. Remember frost bite
happens fast.

That's misleading. I've been outside in -24/-31 F/C, wind chill
-79/-61 F/C, but I doubt any cat would be stupid enough to *go* out in
that - of course, I was able to put on rather a lot of clothing and
cover my face with a wind proof plastic shield.

On the other hand, one of the cats that has been out for hours just
came in - it's 15/-9.4 F/C outside, wind chill 0/-18 F/C. I think
several more are still outside. Without putting on heavy clothing,
I'd die fairly quickly out there.

I should note that my cats can come and go as they please through a
cat flap next to the back door. (Another slightly damp, cool feeling
cat just came into the computer room.)

My observation is that cats will go out hunting from an hour or so
before sunset to a couple of hours after, and a couple of hours before
sunrise to an hour or so after, almost regardless of the temperature
(another cool, damp cat - Fleagor this time - just jumped into my lap;
hunting time is over) as long as it is above the temperature at which
snow becomes crunchy (around what the wind chill is now).


--
T.E.D. )