Tips to keep your pets cool during summer

Take a look at how some of our pets and strays are being treated to stay cool during the summer heat

Malai loves pineapples, Mojo loves watermelon. The adopted indi dogs of Hyderabad-based chef Francis Fernandez and his wife Sonali Sabherwal, gorge on summer fruit when temperatures start to rise. Though Francis is the chef, it is Sonali who indulges their fondness for fruit.

Francis says, “Sonali is obsessed with their craving, she makes it a point to stock their favourite fruit. She also makes sugarless fruity popsicles and gives them one everyday.” He adds that during the berry season, they enjoy berry slushes.

Animal lovers are doing their best to keep their pets cool and comfortable. While water troughs are placed for stray dogs and birds in the locality, pets at home enjoy special summer drinks.

Accounts such as @Mayapolarbear on Instagram, which is regularly updated with Maya’s frozen fruit and berry treats, help pet parents.

Frodo and Moonshine, the adopted dogs at the Alex household in Kompally, Hyderabad are unstoppable upon hearing the faint beep of the AC. Nita Sharma, Frodo and Moonshine’s pet parent says, “Even if they are on the ground floor and I switch on the AC in my room on the second floor, they reach within seconds. Moonshine drinks chilled coconut water thrice a day, Frodo prefers butter milk. At home, water bottles for humans may be empty, but our pets bottles are always filled.”

Stray dogs use their own ingenious ways to stay cool like digging the ground under trees and bushes to reach cooler spots or cooling off in larger accessible water bodies.

Animal organisations are now selling water troughs through pet-friendly eateries and are happy to see them flying off the shelf.

At Sainikpuri in Secunderabad, 60-year-old Rachel and her neighbour make an extra trip on a scooter in the area she feeds the strays, carrying a bucket of water and a mug. She says, “It is not enough to place a water trough, where will the water come from? Since I placed the troughs, it is my duty to keep them full.”

Animal lovers say you don’t need to have a lot to start caring for strays. Udaipur-based animal lover, Seema Mohanchandran, does not just feed stray animals, she also makes sure to vaccinate them.

Seema says, “I am always humbled by the kindness displayed by those who have so little. One day as I was going for my early morning walk, a group of stray dogs followed me to the main road and ran straight into a restaurant building. The guard called out to me to say that they are his friends and he gives them biscuits when he begins to work at 6 pm (his shift is till 6 am). Then he asked me for a water receptacle for them and cows who pass by during the day.”

She adds, “Thanks to the initiative of Guardian Spirits of Animals, Udaipur, I was able to get a big one, which the guard diligently fills every morning.”