Bears sploot. Dogs sploot. Cats sploot. Squirrels sploot. No, these animals are not sick. But what is splooting?
According to CollinsDictionary.com, the word means
VERB (intransitive)
1. (of an animal) to lie flat on the stomach with the hind legs stretched out behind the body
NOUN
2. the act or an instance of splooting
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
C21: perhaps altered from splat
In terms of this post, splooting means heat dumping. (The word is relatively new in the English lexicon!)
During the past week when temperatures reached 90 – 95 degrees I’ve noticed a number of squirrels splooting on my chairs in the shade and on the stone patio. My dogs liked splooting on a cool kitchen floor near the air conditioning ducts. (In the winter they splooted near the heat ducts.) My friend’s cat splooted.
During this heat wave more and more people are noticing animals, wild and domestic, splooting to cool their body temperatures. Even bears sploot, as this image from the National Park Service attests!
Baltimore County Forestry Board 
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