Last year I was trying to figure out a way to make my orange cat, Rocky (you may know him better as Editor -in – Chief )

relax and stop over grooming. I started using Feliway which is a pheromone diffuser and that seemed to help some.

Rocky also like to “escape” out into the hall where he happily chirps at the sun spots and rolls on them.  My apartment is on the shaded side of the building so I don’t get too many sunspots. I began to think I was depriving him of a basic cat right, to lounge in a sun spot. This  got me  to thinking about how lizards and reptiles like to bask in the sun. So on a trip to Petco I picked up one of the sun lamps they use in the reptile cages.

Rocky took to it right away.

Then suddenly, this spring he seemed to lose interest. I turned it on for him  a few times and he’d sniff around it and then walk away. I had no idea what had changed but I wasn’t about to waste electricity running a heat lamp he wasn’t using. Neither Smokey nor Buddy showed any interest so I packed it away.

The first really cool, fall weather finally hit today. About noontime Rocky started wandering around meowing quietly. It was a very sad, plaintive kind of meow. Then he hopped on the desk and got in my face. I took a time out to pet him but that didn’t seem to satisfy him.

Then a light bulb seemed to go off. Could he want his heat lamp? I pulled it out and plugged it in. After a couple of experimental sniffs he stretched out and was down for the count.