It was the end of a hot Texas day when I saw a Great Pyrenees walking down the street in an area neighborhood. His owners had Leroy on a leash and were walking him slowly, as if to give the 180-pound, snow-white dog a chance to recover after each step he took in the stifling heat.

While Great Pyrenees aren't built for Texas heat, his pet parents know how to take care of Leroy during his daily walks. They always walk Leroy in the evening when the weather is a little cooler. They walk him on the grass and not the sidewalk, which still “radiates the day's heat,” they said. They carry a huge water bottle that he can drink from at any time. And, they never walk Leroy on days where the temperature reaches 95 degrees or above. “It just doesn't cool down enough in the evenings to do so,” says Leroy's mom.

Even then, they walk Leroy very slowly. So slowly, it almost doesn't look like a walk. At the pace they go, it takes about 15 minutes for them to go three-tenths of a mile.

“Just long enough to stretch our legs,” says Leroy's mom, “but short enough to get him back quickly into an air-conditioned home. We know it's not much exercise, but we think a daily walk helps clear his head.”

When they get home, Leroy cools off by playing in the water hose for a few minutes before lumbering back into the house and plopping on a tile floor.

Leroy is lucky that his parents understand how to care for him in hot weather. But even dogs with short coats can be overcome by our Texas heat. As San Antonio's Animal Care Services' public information officer, Lisa Norwood reminded me recently the Texas heat can kill our pets. Just a few weeks ago, ACS reported that a dog died from being left in a locked car for just a few minutes.

It only takes a few minutes in a shadeless yard to be overcome by the heat too. I know someone who is still haunted by the fact that she left her two dogs outside for a short period of time one summer day, and one died from heat exhaustion. Walking a dog in the Texas heat can have similar results. Follow Leroy's parents' lead and take lots of extra precautions when walking your pet this summer in Texas.

Send your pet stories and questions to Cathy M. Rosenthal, c/o Features Department, San Antonio Express-News, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, TX 78297-2171 or Cathy's advice column runs every Tuesday. You can read her blog, Animals Matter, at http://blog.mysanantonio. com/animals/. Cathy is the author of several children's books.