My 11 year old, Russian Blue cat, Napoleon, loves to lay on the large sill of our front window. During more than half the day the sun shines directly onto him. His fur get’s so hot you can’t comfortably pick him up. Why isn’t he misreable laying in that spot? It’s August, and hot as hell, yet he insists on laying up there. Isn’t he baking to death?
:rolleyes:Yeah, I know you veterans weren’t fooled by the thread title, but we gotta give those new guys a thrill now & then, right?
I’m masturbating anyways.
The fur is providing insulation from the sun as well, to a certain extent. (I knew this was going to be a feline thread!)
Well, the fur may be hot, but he himself may not be. Fur is a very good insulator. If he is able to cool himself well enough, then perhaps the fur is not transferring enough heat to him to make him uncomfortable. My hair will get very hot in direct sunlight, without my head being as hot, for example.
That was not funny.
Peace,
mangeorge
Even a good insulator when subjected to heat on one side only will eventually transmit heat all the way through.
The cats fur is full of air which is a poor conductor of heat, and there will be a circulation of it, albeit very small to aid the cooling effect.
It may also be that the fur itself refracts heat away rather in the way that furnace linings do.
I was looking for a picture of a flaming cat, myself…
…maybe I’ve been here too long.
Several books about cats say that they are comfortable at much higher temperatures than humans are, and in fact do not get minor burns as easily as we do from things that are just a little too hot.
I have done lots of finite element modeling of thermal conduction heat transfer problems and without having calculated anything ont his question think it likely that the fur insulation is not going to keep that heat out for hours at a stretch.
The color of your cat might have somting to do with it. If it is black or predominatly dark color then Cecil has the answer here.
Napoleon, like all house cats, is descended from African Desert Cats.
Here’s a link to a thread I asked in 1999 it is a similar question
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15845
PK - My cat does the same thing, he is 1/2 Siamese and a dark grey colour. He prefers to lie on our front step on sunny days and he will bask there for hours. He seems pretty damn comfortable in a spot you or I might find unbearably hot. Not only is there the heat from the sun but the heat that radiates from the concrete step.
I saw a special on desert cats on the Discovery Channel. It is believed that the modern day house cat as we know it originated in the deserts of Northern Africa and the middle east. Some species of ferile cats still survive there on the sandy dunes in the sweltering heat obtaining their water only from the prey that they kill. The funny thing is that they look no different from regular cats; understandibly slender but still covered in a furry coat. They also pant like a dog and their tongue hangs out of the side of their mouth, very cute. 
I watched as the cat took on a 6’ cobra, dancing around it’s strikes with ease and slashing at it repeatedly with only it’s claws. The kill took over three hours but finally the cobra was defeated after having been slashed to ribbons and was utterly exhausted. Cats kick ass. No little dog(housecat size) could ever take out a 6’ cobra. EVER.
Cats kick ass.
They also lick their own ass, which is gross!
I remember seeing a TV documentary about cats about five years ago. I specifically recall seeing a blacksmith’s cat sitting quite comfortably just feet from the forge. The narrator said that cats can tolerate much higher temperatures than humans. Unfortunately, the documentary did not give a mechanism for this ability.
Wishbone, take a look at a ratting dog in action sometime. Lil’ dogs aren’t just bred for show, you know.
So does that whole thermal effect about loose black clothing/fur explain the common pattern where cats are dark on the top side and light on the underside? My cat has a black “hat,” “saddle,” and tail, as well as numerous black spots, but he’s white on his underside. He tends to lie on his side and soak up the sun…it’s kind of cool to pet him and feel the heat differential between the two fur colors.
Corr
Just think how thrilled we moderators are.