Last night when I got home from work I saw the cat for just
a second before she ducked into the room where we keep the
litterbox. She hid under the bed.

Okay, says I, no big problem. But when it came time to go
to bed, my girlfriend and I realized we hadn't seen the
cat all night. I went looking and found her under the bed
downstairs. She was there this morning, too. She might well
have been hiding there all night, seeing as how the wet food
I put out last night doesn't look touched.

Looking at her with a flashlight to see better, it seemed that
her mouth was perpetually open, like she was panting. So we're
thinking it might be that she's too hot and is under the bed
because it's cool down there. The problems there are:

1) It's not really that hot at the moment. Much cooler than
it has been at other points of the summer, and Penny never
acted this way before.

2) We've got the air conditioner in our bedroom upstairs,
and she knows this. She usually likes to sit in the window
upstairs or on the bed, and has seemed quite comfortable
doing that all summer.

Does anyone have any ideas? We're going to get her out from
under the bed tonight and have a look at her. She doesn't
appear to be injured in any way, and she didn't seem to be
in any great distress. Any help or advice would be greatly
appreciated.

Pete