But they match so well! Hope the heat wave breaks soon.

I'm rather grateful for my short-legged Corgi. He sheds a fair amount, but at least he doesn't jump on anything taller than the couch.

My kitties have always owned the peninsula too, and I get scolded when things are in their space.

I'm sure all kinds of nefarious things happen on the rest of the counters at night.

LoPay, it reminds me of when my daughter declares that her cats do not get on the counter because she doesn't allow it. Uh huh, until she goes to bed or leaves the apartment.

My cats are never on the counters or tables. Except on those nights when I'm wandering the house and see them sleeping on the DR table or the coffee table or the kitchen table.

I know they are never on the kitchen counter except for that one time when I got up in the morning and found the catnip that I had inadvertently and stupidly left on the kitchen counter before going to bed. I got up and found them asleep (drugged to their nine lives) in the middle of the kitchen with catnip all around them.

My cats on the counters and tables?... noooo.

linelle: I'm up the coast from you and we're going through the same heat wave (although I think a day behind) and will be setting heat records in the next couple of days. My cats are hiding in the basement.

blfenton, the forecast for 90-100 is going way into next week. Usually a couple of really hot days here and the heat from the interior valleys sucks in the marine layer, much to everyone's relief. Normally I'm one of those annoying people who like the heat, but I'm rethinking that. :)

The cats also had the cooling option of the bathroom floors, but ewwww, right?

You need to take you cats on a road trip to the city. Even though it is in the upper 70s, the shade is even cooler. I swear as I went from San Pablo to the Bay Bridge the temp dropped about 1 degree for every 300 feet of distance. There was about a 30 degree drop. As we crossed into Berkeley, my little Corgi sat up and smiled into the breeze coming in the windows.

Nothing dresses up a stylish kitchen like a pair of coordinating felines. In my book, you are at the top of the class - they look great!

Good luck with the heat wave. We've got some low 90s here but nothing to complain about.

Oh Linelle your kitties are gorgeous! What are their names?

I have to laugh when people say their kitties are never on their counters or tables. Cats rule a house. My Tommy has claimed my sink as his very own. I think he sleeps in it! I have been trying to snap a pic of him when he is in the sink but he just does not cooperate.

The night that my induction cooktop was installed I was in bed reading and heard a beep. I thought my fridge door was open. I found King Thomas walking on the cooktop. Thank goodness he isn't magnetic or he would have fried himself.

Smart kids! They always know the most comfortable places to hang.

"Thank goodness he isn't magnetic or he would have fried himself." LOL!

Yeah, these guys pretty much own the island...

Yea- I think mine are never on the counters.... But when I'm not around- who knows what the heck goes on- one of mine has found a nice dark corner- next to the register where the cool air comes out- who says cats aren't smart?

I have lived in the East Bay of San Francisco area for most of my adult life- cant remember when the A/C has come on at 11am already- it's a scorcher- like an oven outside!

Climate Change? Global Warming anyone????

My own cat actually does pretty much stay off the counters. I know this because our floors are usually dirty enough that she leaves foot prints if she gets on them.

raenjapan, that cartoon is the absolute truth. I really tried to train them to stay off when they were little, including squirt bottles and screaming like a fish-wife. It didn't really deter them and I hated feeling like such a shrew. Who am I kidding and trying to impress?

holly-kay, L to R, Bessie and Zephyr. Zephyr's very proud that the range hood is named after him. No induction for me, because I would not put it past them to steal magnets from the fridge and drop on the stovetop.

Truth

LoPay, LOL.

Beth, beautiful kitties. Is the one on the right a Norwegian Forest Cat?

Great pictures, thanks. You know, this is yet another function of stone counters. With rising temperatures, people shouldn't be surprised to find their clever pets are hanging in the coolest place in the house.

Reminds me of the too-long line I waited in one winter for a Barbra Streisand concert, a half-healed broken ankle and nothing to sit on but a solid marble wall...

Oh PLEAZZZZZZZZZZZE tell me its gonna get cooler out there - I live near Houston TX and it was 106 yesterday afternoon on my shady porch but a week from Tues will be in San Francisco for a week - to escape the Texas heat.

new-beginning, you're in luck! Looks like SF will be in the 60s as per usual for summertime. Even now, it's easily 20 degrees cooler than where I am, 50 miles north and inland. Eventually the marine layer will move in. It should be perfect when you're here. Bring a jacket!

If I had waited to name our Tommy I would have to call him Kohler. He sure loves that sink!

new-beginning: you need not worry. If you stay on the peninsula, it won't break 82 and more likely will be 60s and 70s. Today was a little cooler further from the Bay, but not much.

my dog likes to lie on the patch of marble in the entryways.

linelle, I think he's just the cat version of a mutt, but we have thought he must have some NFC in him, given his size and fluffy face.

holly-kay, too funny about Tommy/Kohler! Our black&white cat also loves the bathroom sink!

Hope all you American's are staying cool. We're lucky to get low 70's here in England, lol! I got locked out of my house for an hour this morning, in only a t-shirt and shorts, and was bloody freezing!

Anyway, all the cat pictures are adorable. We have two elderly cats (Lilly and Poppy) who can no longer jump high enough to get on the kitchen counters. The younger one (Poppy) has been on the counters in her younger days though. My dad made a chocolate yule log cake for Christmas one year, and left it uncovered on the counter - BIG MISTAKE! Poppy jumped up and licked ALL the buttercream off the top! She's a little monkey!

Here's a picture of my two babies, enjoy!

Reah, Your kitties are beautiful.

We had a dear old Lily also. I swore I was not getting another cat and I didn't, Tommy got me. Someone must have dumped him and he found his way into our garage. I couldn't let him outside without neutering him and I figured if I was going to the expense to neuter him he may as well be part of our family. I did offer him to my FB friends but no takers. I was glad though because I fell in love with him.

I have three cats, one of which (Indiana) looks very much like linelle's--tuxedo cat, but with the overlapping black spots that create "stars" on her back. The other two are very standard tuxedo cats. People ask how I can tell them apart, but to me they look nothing alike.

Texas can easily jump on the counters. Arizona, my mildly developmentally disabled cat (kitty Asperger's syndrome? Mild cerebral palsy?) is a bad jumper and very clumsy (she is absolutely amazing on a vertical surface, however). Fortunately for her, instead of built-in cabinets I have worktables in most of the kitchen that sit in front of low-silled windows. She gets on the bottom shelf, climbs onto the window sill and from there onto the top of the work tables.

She desperately wants to get onto the counters in the scullery, which has standard cabinets. She's managed to jump up there at least twice, but mostly she won't try. She stands on the worktable on the other side of the doorway and tries to step around the door frame onto the scullery counter--which never works--until I take pity on her and put her on the window ledge above the sink.

Texas and Arizona came from the shelter with those names; we got Indiana later and stayed with the naming theme (Georgia, Viginia and Pennsylvania were also in the running).

My cats are easy to tell apart, except when they aren't. One is always morphing into the other. I say I have one cat, twice.

We used to have two tuxedo cats who were sisters and the only way to tell them apart was that one of them had a slight line of white fur above one eye. One day I had a plumber in to do some work. He saw one cat and a few minutes later saw the other cat and assumed it was the same cat. This went on for a while and then he was under the sink working and of course, cats being cats, they had to investigate. He had two cats walk on top of him and i guess got confused because suddenly I hear "oh S###! and a bang as he hit his head. Yep, he thought there was only one cat.

Another hot day today, it's even hot in the basement and will be hot all week. yecch. I want my marine air. My SIL is in Las Vegas for a convention and apparently it was 120 F. yesterday.

My heart goes out to the firefighters lost in Arizona yesterday. I suspect our forest fire rating is about to skyrocket.

Sign in my cousin's kitchen: "In this house, cat hair is a condiment."

Too funny Linelle!

I still chuckle every single time I see the pizza stone. All I see is that poor kitty riding it down the counter before it broke. I think that might have been eatrealfood's kitty maybe?

I had a Siamese who didn't get up on the counters. Of course, she didn't really fully believe that she was a cat either...Her name was Annie - she came to me as an orphan before her eyes were open (so she was less than two weeks old) and I bottle fed her. She never really comprehended "cat" things. She didn't pounce, she didn't like catnip really, and she truly didn't get up on counters or tables. She would "talk" to me, but not in the typical Siamese calls. Miss her terribly.

Linelle - hope that you're getting some relief from the heat...you might have to climb up on the counters too along with your lovely kitties.

andrea, it's in the upper 90s, which is an improvement over 102. Once the first couple of days pass, I tend to adjust.

When I was growing up in Los Gatos we had hot summers. Back then, nobody had A/C but the supermarkets. Even with luxury cars you had to ride with the windows down on hot days, blowing the crap out of matrons' hairdos. We had a nice house, but no A/C. I used to find my mom, spread-eagle on her back in the hall on the linoleum tile floor, with a fan directed right up her muu-muu, billowing in the breeze. It still makes me smile.

linelle - that's still just too darn hot, particularly if there's any humidity at all. Around the Bay area, you're not supposed to get those type of temperatures, are you?

When we lived in Vegas and it would "cool" to the 90's at night, I remember it being "comfortable", but here in PA where there's humidity and we're getting temperatures in the high 80-90 area...eh, not so much.

Love that little visual of your mom...what a fun memory.

It is abnormal to have these temps for this many days, this early in the year. It's more usual to have a couple of days in the high 90s in late Aug or Sept.

However as I write this I am sitting out on the patio enjoying a cooling breeze - maybe I'm just acclimated to the heat now but it feels cooler than it is supposed to be according to weather.com and a nice refreshing breeze coming up.

My cats actually seem to love the heat, but they do get very sleepy!

My dog never gets on the furniture either.... : / Not sure about the martini and cell phone though...better check the gin.

Andrea, the blessing is that we don't have high humidity here. So grateful for that. My cats are usually tearing like mad through the house but the heat has slowed them way down.

Gr8day, love your pooch.

I sure hope that awful heat wave breaks soon. And that it stays away from the Great Lakes states! Last spring and summer were absolutely miserable and we don't have AC either. In fact the lack of AC and a new microwave has spurred our upcoming remodeling/addition....the one that has been long delayed because it is taking forever to get the plans finished so we can go to the permit process.. Argh! The builder has promised a temporary AC solution and it better get here soon!

I have 2 cats and I always know when they have been on the counters. They don't even try to hide their crimes--tongue prints on the knives and pans, fur in the sink. I think they feel that DH and I don't get enough fiber in our diets. At least the larger one, a b/w tuxedo cat no longer rips open the bread bags and eats the crusts.

Linelle, I don't see any cats on your island - all I see is black and white - everything blends in my eyes.

gr8day, I'm still laughing looking at your dog and picture - love it!

On a hot afternoon, my cat Petey glues himself to the basement floor. He's part Maine Coon Cat I believe, and it must get hot and stay hot under that coat.
He also relishes the bathroom tile floor when he's upstairs:

such cute kitties and that puppy! oh my.

My ding-a-ling little dog lays on top of the air conditioning vents. She completely covers it. She is just a little cockapoo, but big enough to block the air. Or when she is sitting up with just her head over it--then the ears are blowing in the breeze.

Wishing all of you cooler weather.

I'm looking right now at "Jack's vent." They're all over, of course, but as he got older and more portly that one became his particular place for napping through summer afternoons--fluffy tuxedo fluttering the only hint it's there.

Looking at people's pets...that never gets old.

I love your babies -- just like they're mine!

I wish I could get a picture of Waylon, my Silver RagDoll lying on his back, on the peninsula, all 4 paws in the air. Or him in the sink caterwalling for water.

Then there are my dogs lying with their tummies on the cool, mud room tile.

Or the other cats who just lie around not moving when its hot. My 20 lb kitty, Kharma, must be next to me at all times, no matter how hot or cold. Too bad she has a malorderous bummy since she's so fat she can barely clean herself. She doesn't mind the bath, thank goodness, and seems to like it when it's so hot.

I mowed the lawn yesterday for 3.5 hours. 10:00 - 1:30. When I got off the mower, I was beet red, sweating rivers, dizzy and sick to my stomach. Who knew Maryland's 90F+ and heat indicies of over 100 could hurt'cha so?

I roll my eyes when people inform me, usually with a slightly superior air, that their cats/dogs/ferrets/whatever, never get on the counters or furniture. I think the frontal lobe of my brain is hardening with age, because I can barely bite back the question, "Were you born this way or have you always been so stupidly delusional?"

I didn't open this thread before now. Glad I didn't miss it. We had two cats who typically stayed off the kitchen counters, but they did like to get above the dogs on the backs of chairs and on the tables. I don't think they liked the kitchen activity, but a table -- especially the less often used dining table? That was ideal! LOL

Our AC went out the week before that heat wave came through here (we got to 109) and wasn't repaired until after. The cats are no longer with us, but the dogs were sure experts at finding cool places. We had a network of fans and they would usually be in front of the one nearest the people or in the best watching spot.

Zephyr thinks this is the best of both worlds:

Where did my cats spend ALL day, with temps over 110F? In the garage, sleeping on the concrete floor.

They could have been in the house, sleeping on cooler tile, but they want to be warm.