These hot and lazy days

As we're in the midst of a hot and humid heat wave, my poor fur-coated, overweight and already prone to laziness boys are writhing on their backs on the floor, their fur waving in front of the fan. As we don't have air conditioning, I went out looking for a suitable water dish yesterday, one that would stop Tiger (with diabetes, so he's all over the water all the time) from quacking at me for fresh cold water every time I went into the kitchen. What I was really looking for was the beer mugs that you freeze, only bowls. You would think that SOMEONE out there would make these for such exotic, rare desserts like ice cream, right?

I've purchased two of the cat water fountains in the past, and found that unless you're using distilled water, these things become more of a nuisance than anything with all the lime and calcium build-up; bugs and fur in the water; and the cost of the replacement filters.

So after giving up completely, I went to the dollar store. I had an idea. I bought three tupperware-like containers that promised not to leak (and made in Canada-which was a bonus), returned home and filled them 3 quarters full of water. I then put the lids back on and stacked them in the freezer. When the water needs to be changed, I'm taking one of these out of the freezer, filling the last quarter with tap water and letting the ice melt while they drink.

So far, so good, although they were a little unnerved about the crackling of the melting ice at first; Cody ran away from it. But they seem to be getting used to it and I feel a lot less guilty about leaving them stuck up in a hot, stuffy house all day long.