If it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for your pets. On Friday, the temperature  in New Jersey hit 108 degrees with the humidity just as high. I walked out of my air conditioned apartment and was nearly knocked over by the wall of heat that hit me. We have the ability to cool off by sweating, out pets don’t. That’s why in extreme heat,  keep them cool by keeping them in an air conditioned environment . When walking your dog, just take him out for a walk and that’s it. Hold the exercise and playing with dog toys for a cooler day. Always have plenty of water available at all times for your pets. Never ever leave your pet in a hot car not even for a few minutes. This spells disaster for sure! The inside of the car heats up more quickly than you think, to levels that are dangerous for most dogs and cats.  Even when the temperature is in the eighties on the outside, the inside will heat up very fast.  The temperature rises even with the windows cracked open. Here’s an example. If it’s 83 degrees outside and the windows are cracked open, after five minutes the temperature rises to 86, after ten minutes it’s now at 90, and after 30 minutes the temperature is now 100 degrees!  Imagine how high the temperature would have gotten with the extreme heat that we experienced last week. If you ever see a dog in a hot car with the windows shut on a hot day, I would have the owner paged if the car is at a store or go and find a police officer if the car is parked on a local street. Lots of people today are too preoccupied with their own lives to care about anything!

Remember – your pets count!