Cape Winter With Pets: Cold Fronts, Damp and Stiff Old Joints

Damp is the real enemy

Cape winter cold is modest by Highveld standards, but weeks of rain mean damp bedding, wet coats and muddy sleeping spots — and damp cold aggravates arthritis far more than dry cold does. Raise outdoor kennels off the ground, turn them away from the north-westerly fronts, and wash-and-fully-dry bedding weekly; a damp blanket is worse than no blanket.

Elderly and thin-coated dogs genuinely benefit from a jersey on cold, wet days, and from sleeping indoors through the front itself.

Arthritis flares on schedule

If your senior dog or cat gets visibly stiffer every winter, that is a pattern worth treating rather than enduring. Modern arthritis care — from anti-inflammatories to monthly injections — makes winters dramatically more comfortable, and a warm, padded bed away from draughts does the unglamorous half of the work.

Cats hide winter pain by simply moving less. A senior cat who stops jumping onto the windowsill this winter is telling you about her joints.

Beat the cabin fever

A week of rain means a week of unspent energy. Ten minutes of indoor training games, food puzzles or hide-and-seek burns more of it than most owners expect, and keeps rainy-week behaviour problems from taking root. When a gap in the weather opens, take it — wet-grass walks with a good towel-down afterwards beat no walks at all.