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Kylie just loved laying out in the sun, we would call her a lizard when she would come in from the patio, tongue dragging, panting like crazy. Then she would stretch out on the floor inside, where it was nice and air conditioned, just long enough to cool down so she could head back out there.

We tried getting her an outdoor bed, like a cot so at least she wouldn’t lay directly on the hot pavement, but half the time we would find her laying on the hot pavement directly beside or in front of the the bed. So on extremely hot days we would just close the doggie door and say, “sorry it’s just not good for you.”

Inside the house she would find the sunniest spot she could, even if it was on the hard kitchen floor, but usually that was in one of her window seats. When we lived in apartments and condos where Kylie didn’t have a yard or even windows low enough for her to sit and observe the world, we always made sure she had access to see out at least one window. We even bought her those seats that you attach to the inside of your windows so your cat can see outside. Of course we didn’t tell Kylie they were really for cats – or that they had to be reinforced because she was slightly heavier than most cats!

Then at some point we noticed on her little nose that she had turned really pink, it even peeled a little. She had a sunburn! Yes, dogs can get sunburned! We felt terrible. For awhile we banned her from the west-facing window seat, but she was so unhappy – so we still felt terrible.

So we went to the store and bought the diy window tinting for cars. We got the darkest they had and put it on the window…. problem solved! Well, that problem anyway, there were also the times Kylie got ‘grounded’ from the window seat for barking, and barking, and barking! But that’s another story.

Btw, we also put heating pads in those window seats for when Kylie insisted on watching the snow fall all day long.