Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 29, 2013

A9

JUST FOR BEST FRIENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 29, 2013 

IT’S SUMMERTIME AND THE HEAT IS ON!

Is Your Pet Safe From The Sun?


Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc

 It’s almost July, and the heat 
is on in Southern California, 
but who doesn’t already know 
that happens every year in our 
neck of the woods, right? As a 
long term Sierra Madre resident, 
I remember years ago when 
there were few and far-between 
spots along the streets in my 
neighborhood where the sun 
came through and beat down 
between the trees, because there 
were so many tree canopies 
back then, to help protect us 
from burning our feet on the 
pavement. 

 Those were the days, but now 
we are in a new age where folks 
do tend to cut down shade trees 
left and right, just to allow for 
construction of driveways and 
such. Who knew? Anyway, I am 
thankful for the trees we still 
have that continue to provide 
healthy photosynthesis, aesthetic 
adornment and kind cooling 
shade for those of us who still 
know how to appreciate it. But, 
now there are many areas in 
our relatively small 
niche of a town 
where the trees have 
been stripped away 
for whatever reason, 
and in those areas it can get 
hotter than ever before, when 
the brutal summer heat comes 
a-calling. Indeed, in some areas 
of our town, it is not at all safe 
for any living being, human or 
otherwise to be outside where 
the sun is beating down.

 Animals are a lot like humans, 
in that they should be treated 
with the same respect with 
which we expect to be treated 
when it comes to proper living 
conditions, particularly during 
the heat of the summer months. 
There is no excuse for any pet 
owner to refuse a pet its personal 
basic rights, which, in our neck 
of the woods just happens to be 
protected by Los Angeles County 
penal codes and ordinances, and 
strongly reinforced by California 
State Laws. In short, domestic 
pets who live in Sierra Madre 
and other LA county towns are 
entitled to have access to a cool 
shady place where they can 
escape the heat, clean cool water 
and sufficient daily nourishment. 
The SPCA LA website (http://
spcala.com/resources/article) 
sums it up quite nicely, with a 
must-be list of to-do’s meant to 
help pet owners in LA County 
understand the basic concepts of 
safe pet keeping in the summer 
months:

How to Keep your Pet 
Cool in Hot Weather 
(source: spcaLA.com)

 While you’re cool indoors, 
think about your pets. Are they 
cool too, or are their lives in 
danger?

 A dog’s normal temperature 
is at least 5 degrees higher than a 
human’s. If they are confined in a 
yard or dog run, with no way to 
escape from the heat, they may 
easily become victims of a fatal 
heat stroke.

 spcaLA offers the following 
hot weather pet care tips:

. Water to prevent 
dehydration: Plenty of clean, 
cool drinking water is a must at 
all times.
. Protection from the sun: 
If your pet must stay in the yard 
instead of the cool indoors, be 
sure he has adequate shade and 
ventilation.
. Park your pet at home: 
Never leave your pet in a parked 
car, not even for five minutes. 
It could cost him his life. The 
temperature in a parked car 
can soar to 160 degrees within 
minutes, even with the windows 
left slightly open.
. Emergency Care: If a pet 
is overcome by heat (detected 
by excess panting, heavily 
salivation, and/or immobility) 
immerse him slowly in cool 
water to lower his body 
temperature, then contact a 
veterinarian. Never immerse a 
pet in ice cold water, as it may 
cause shock.
. Keep Pets Groomed: 
Clip long or matted coats short 
to help your pet stay cool, but 
remember that pets, like people, 
can get sunburned too and coats 
should not be TOO short.
. Health Check: Carefully 
go over your pet’s body at least 
once a week to check for fleas, 
ear mites and tiny bumps or 
cuts. Take your pet to the vet 
for a summer check-up and 
use a good flea/tick repellent 
recommended by your vet.
. Fleas: Fleas need to be 
attacked on three fronts; on the 
pet itself, in the home, and in the 
yard.
. Exercise: Exercise pets 
in the morning or in the evening, 
when it is cooler.
. Prevent Burns: Dog 
pads (on the bottom of their 
feet) burn quite easily, so avoid 
hot surfaces such as asphalt on 
hot days.
. Identification: With the 
hotter weather, families and their 
pets are outside more often, not 
to mention the noises of some 4th 
of July celebrations, increasing 
the chances of a pet getting lost. 
Make sure your pets always wear 
proper identification.


Fun Heat Relief Ideas:

. Ice Cube Treats: Freeze 
edible mystery treats into ice 
cubes for your dog to lick and 
discover while you are away! Bits 
of vegetables and/or meat bits 
are excellent ideas for ice cube 
surprise inners!
. Kiddy Pools: Fill a baby 
pool with water and let your 
dogs splash about at his leisure 
while you‘re at work. When you 
are at home, you can toss a bowl 
of ice cube treats in the pool 
water for him to hunt.
. Frozen Pops: Make your 
dog a delicious frozen treat 
to enjoy! You can use canned 
pumpkin or fresh fruit minced 
with a processor to come up with 
some awesome cold creations for 
which your four-pawed friend 
will love you!
. Hose-Play: Get out in 
the back yard with your best 
friend, and spray him down. 
Be sure and include yourself 
in the spray-play too! He will 
love you all the more for it! 


 It may seem kind of silly to 
some readers, to think there 
are people out there who don’t 
already “get” the basics about 
how to properly care for their 
pets in the heat of summer, 
and hopefully most people are 
indeed very aware. However, for 
those who are still figuring it out, 
I sincerely hope this information 
helps. As always, I encourage 
everyone to appreciate the 
animals…please, love and let 
live!


THE WORLD AROUND US


THREE PLANETS IN HABITABLE ZONE OF NEARBY STAR

 A team of astronomers has 
combined new observations of 
the star Gliese 667C with existing 
data from the European Southern 
Observatory’s 3.6-meter 
telescope in Chile to reveal a 
system with at least six planets. 
A record-breaking three of these 
planets are “super-Earths” lying 
in the zone around the star where 
liquid water could exist, making 
them possible candidates for the 
presence of life. 

 Gliese 667C is a very well-
studied star. With just over one 
third of the mass of the Sun, it is 
part of a triple-star system known 
as Gliese 667 (also referred to as 
GJ 667), 22 light-years away in 
the constellation of Scorpius (The 
Scorpion). This is quite close 
to us—much closer than the 
star systems investigated using 
telescopes such as the planet-
hunting Kepler space telescope.

 Viewed from one of these 
newly found planets, the two 
other suns would look like a pair 
of very bright stars visible in the 
daytime, and at night they would provide as much illumination as 
the full Moon. The new planets completely fill up the habitable zone 
of Gliese 667C, as there are no more stable orbits in which a planet 
could exist at the right distance to it.

 The astronomers knew that the star had three planets from 
previous studies, and they wanted to see whether there were any 
more. By adding some new observations and revisiting existing 
data they were able to confirm those three and confidently reveal 
several more.

 Three of these planets are confirmed to be super-Earths—
planets more massive than Earth, but less massive than planets like 
Uranus or Neptune—that are within their star’s habitable zone, an 
area around a star in which water may be present in liquid form if 
conditions are right. (In our own solar system, Venus orbits close 
to the inner edge of the habitable zone and Mars close to the outer 
edge.)

 Compact systems around Sun-like stars have been found to be 
abundant in the Milky Way. Around such stars, planets orbiting 
close to the parent star are very hot and are unlikely to be habitable. 
But this is not true for cooler and dimmer stars such as Gliese 667C. 
In this case, the habitable zone lies entirely within an orbit the size 
of Mercury’s, much closer than for our Sun. The Gliese 667C system 
is the first example of a system where such a low-mass star is seen to 
host several potentially rocky planets in the habitable zone.

 The team used data from the UVES spectrograph on ESO’s Very 
Large Telescope in Chile (to determine the properties of the star 
accurately); the Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph (PFS) at the 
6.5-meter Magellan II Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory 
in Chile; the HIRES spectrograph mounted on the Keck 10-meter 
telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii; and extensive previous data from 
HARPS (the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) at 
ESO’s 3.6-meter telescope in Chile.

 The ESO scientist responsible for HARPS, Gaspare Lo Curto, 
remarks: “This exciting result was largely made possible by the 
power of HARPS and its associated software, and it also underlines 
the value of the ESO archive. It is very good to also see several 
independent research groups exploiting this unique instrument and 
achieving the ultimate precision.”

Text, images, and video:

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1328/

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.


Artist’s rendition of the star Gliese 667C