My kitties go in the cool basement when hot.
Air conditioning would be nice, but it isn’t really ‘needed’ here. There are cool, dark places in the bedrooms if the cat feels too warm.
Winter, though, can get chilly. We’ll leave the heater at 50ºF when we’re not home or at night.
We have it on 75 when we’re out of the house, 73 when we’re inside. The cat seems to get lethargic and seek out cool places if it’s too hot. Her comfort is definitely a consideration.
78f for my dog while I’m gone, 75f for me while I’m home.
Denver is regularly 90-100 all summer long (and summer extends into fall). I don’t care if it’s a dry heat - so is the oven. It cools down dramatically at night, but the days are unbearable without AC. Although, I’m recoiling with horror at all of the high 70s-mid 80s responses, so maybe it’s me.
Mine is set between 70-74, always. (And 74 is rare). My dogs and I would be miserable if it were any higher.
No AC in our house, but the dogs gravitate to the basement which is large and cool year round. In fact,my man-cave is a favorite place to hangout, drink, chill, etc.
75 year round all the time.
We have AC, but haven’t turned it on yet this year. (Last week we had a fire going in the fireplace one chilly evening). I love the weather here. They say it might hit 90 today. That will be interesting.
It gets hot here for only a few months, and we don’t have AC. if the cats get really hot, they can go to the basement.
House rabbits suffer in heat, so we leave it about the same temp when we’re home vs away.
The programmable thermostat is set to 85 during the day on weekdays, and 75 the rest of the time.
It’s set on 78 for weekday days, and automatically goes down to 74 about 1/2 an hour before I get home from work. However, the house holds its overnight cool air really well and rarely gets warm enough inside for the AC to kick in during the day.
I’ve seen a cat laze in a sunbeam from a window dozens of times in my life. The surface temperature of their fur gets to be almost burning hot when they do this.
The cat never seems to be in any distress, nor does it appear to do them any noticeable harm. One cat I had that did this lived about 20 years.
So either their physiology is more tolerant of heat, or they can ramp it back to reduce internal heat production, or both. I think you’re on to something here.
Repeating what I said in post # 13 - cats are desert animals (or descended from them at any rate) and tolerate heat just fine.
Our AC is set at 84° most of the time whether we’re home or not. If I really can’t stand it, I will bump it down to 80°. We manage to keep the house fairly cool by opening and closing windows and doors at the appropriate times of day and using fans. Money is tight this summer and this system we’ve got down had reduced out summer electricity bill by about half. Both dogs and both cats seem perfectly happy.
Not just you ;). 78 degrees as an interior temperture seems unbearably warm to me. But then I live in the land of bland weather and ever-moderate tempertures and don’t own any AC. I tend to wilt a bit when visiting the south. At work the thermostat typically gets set at 68-72 ( by just about everybody ).
I never change it. The AC is at 68 or something like that. So is the heat. And it stays there.
At home all the time.
68 F all the time.
Dawg needs it & the cats like it judging by how badly they want it.
Perfect year round for me would be 65-66 but the wife would shoot me. 
We don’t change it when we leave the house. It’s set about 76° all the time. 76° in AC doesn’t seem like 76° in heat, for some reason. 76° in the winter would be way too hot, but any lower than 76° seems way too cold in the summer.
Anyway, the dogs get the same treatment we do.