While most of us set our clocks ahead one hour last night (spring ahead), our kitties most likely didn’t reset their internal clocks.
If you took an extra hour and didn’t get up at the appointed time, chances are, your kitties were not happy at not getting their breakfast at the appointed hour. That time change did nothing for their tummies. They expected their breakfast at 7 or 8 am as always.
Today, we share the many other cats and other pets that are participating in this Sunday’s Selfie Blog Hop kindly hosted by The Cat on My Head. We wonder what other felines, pups, rabbits, and their humans are thinking as we struggle with one hour less of time, something all of us have to little of. Please stop by the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop and meet some wonderful friends who, like us, have now entered the world of DST.
Cats are not wired into time
Unlike humans who become slaves to clocks, cats are not wired into time. They are creatures of habit, and they know when their stomach says it’s time for breakfast. They know when they hear the shower going that you are going to be bribing them with treats so not to play Houdini cat when going out the door.
At Paws for Reflection, we pondered about this whole time change thing, not that the cats care; however, the humans were a bit curious about this custom. Turns out springing ahead to summer time is what they call Daylight Saving (not plural) Time. It adds one hour to standard time, making use of daylight to conserve energy. If you don’t have to turn the lights on until 8 pm, rather than 7pm, it saves energy, which does make sense. Additionally, it shifts light from early morning, when most people and kitties are snoozing away, to later in the day when people are bustling with activity.
Canada was first to formally use DST
Canada was the first to formally use Daylight Saving Time. Port Arthur which today is known as Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada introduced the practice in 1908. Other Canadian towns and cities followed.
World War I brought DST to most of Europe. Germany became the first country to introduce DST when clocks moved an hour ahead on April 30, 1916 to minimize the use of artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort. Other European countries quickly followed, including the United Kingdom and France. However, the practice was discontinued after the war.
DST designed to support World War I
In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed DST into law to support the war effort during World War I. Robert Garland, a Pittsburgh industrialist who had encountered the idea in the United Kingdom, is credited with this, and today he is referred to as the “Father of Daylight Saving.
Seven months later the seasonal time change was repealed. However, some cities, including Pittsburgh, Boston, and New York, continued to use it until President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted year-round DST in the United States in 1942. This year-round DST, called War Time, was in effect for much of World War II from February 9, 1942, to September 30, 1945. Canada did the same. The United Kingdom applied “Double Summer Time” during World War II by setting the clocks two hours ahead of GMT during the summer and one hour ahead of GMT during the winter.
While controversial, the practice has continued
From 1945 to 1966 there were no uniform rules for DST in the United States causing transportation scheduling nightmares. Because of this, Congress established the Uniform Time Act of 1966 stating DST would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. It still gave states the ability to opt out by passing state laws.
During the oil embargoes and energy crisis, the US Congress extended DST to a period of ten months in 1974 and eight months in 1975, to save energy. The trial period showed that DST saved about 10,000 barrels of oil each day.
Since 1976, the DST schedule in the US has been revised several times. From 1987 to 2006, the country was under DST for about seven months. The current schedule, adopted in 2007, extends DST about one month. Today, DST starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.
DST observed in 70 countries
DST is now observed in over 70 countries; however, the beginning and end dates vary from one country to another. In 1996, the European Union (EU) standardized an EU-wide DST schedule, which runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
While we may be saving energy through DST, one thing is for sure – our cats don’t really care about time. They know when it’s daylight. They know when it’s breakfast time. They know when they think you should get up to feed them.
If only we humans could learn to not be slaves to time, but it doesn’t really work for us, as we have to report to jobs on time, go to meetings when they are scheduled, and attend events like weddings and birthday parties when scheduled.
Can you imagine being tune into the moment like a cat? If you were, what would you do differently? Or if they had to be like us and be so conscious of time, what do you think they would make their top priority? We know they wouldn’t like to give up an hour of sleep time, but please weigh in and share your thoughts.
Please visit all of these wonderful friends participating in the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop (a fav of the Paws gang), kindly hosted by the Cat on My Head.
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