Sunday 28 January 2018

So We Thought a Cat Door Would Be a Good Idea...

We had become slaves in our own home. There are three possible doors out of which our "beloved" cats depart to go outside. They are very much indoor / outdoor beasts, even on the coldest winter day. Sampson, the eldest, has always let us know that he wants out by lifting and dropping the edge of the doormat with his claws. Sometimes he does the mat trick in front of the closest door to get our attention (i.e. to get us up off the couch) and then quickly moves toward the actual door from which he wishes to go out. He's actually pretty smart. Scooter, much younger and somewhat less intelligent, or so we thought, has learned the door mat flicking technique. We do a lot of letting out.

Sampson, the more refined, enjoying sleeping on unfilled Christmas stockings

Scooter, the cat with no tail, who is more laid back, not quite fitting on a chair


In order to ask to be let back in, our cats jump up on an outdoor window sill, close to one of the exterior doors, and "ping" (i.e. pull with claws) the screen on the window. In the winter time, there are much shorter durations between letting out and letting back in because, well, it's cold. But they really do want to go out, but then they really do want to come back in, and on and on it goes.

Not only were we tired of the constant doorman routine, but we were also anticipating an upcoming trip we were going on. We do not have family living any where close to us, so when we go away, we leave the looking after of cats to our reliable teenage son. This time around, however, we were going to go on vacation and take both of our children with us, so no teenage son in residence to let cats in and out. We have, in the past, asked our neighbour across the road to look in on our animals for us. He kindly agrees, but he works full time and he is not a "pet person". He agrees because it is the neighbourly thing to do. Also, it would be ridiculous to expect him to come back and forth to our house in the cold and snow to constantly let our cats in and out. That's asking too much of anyone! We had been contemplating a cat door for a while, so we decided now was the good time, well ahead of the trip so that our cats would learn the whole cat door process before we left.

Husband, who has no fear of tackling any home project, quite adeptly cut through a wall and installed the cat door in our mudroom, a perfect place because the access is well back in our car port where snow will not gather (defeats the purpose if you are shovelling snow away from the cat door) and the mudroom can be a self-contained large area where the cats can have their food, enough space to get away from each other (Sampson barely tolerates Scooter), and a litter box if necessary. As well, doors can be closed from the mudroom to the rest of the house so that the cats can go no further.

It was a "simple" cat door with a frame around the outside and a sturdy plastic flap with a magnetic closure.

We then began the process of teaching the cats how to use it. We moved their food and water to the mudroom, from the kitchen where it had been since we got Scooter. They had to know it was the new location so we were picking them up and carrying them out there quite a few times. As well, every time they wanted to go out and started lifting and dropping a mat in front of a door, we would pick them up, take them out to the mudroom and lift the flap of the cat door, gently urging them to go out that way. And yes, they continued to jump on the outdoor windowsills and wreak havoc with the screens. We would go outside (yes, it's winter) and literally walk around the house, cat in arms, to get to the car port and lift the flap to gently urge them to go in the cat door. This went on for many many days until Scooter (who knew??) figured it out on his own. We praised him every time he showed up in the house after using the cat door (do cats even care about praise?) and eventually Sampson also got the idea.

You know there's going to be a glitch, don't you? So, here's the glitch. I don't know if there's some kind of a cat telegraph line, or that our cats are just really friendly, social beings, or the neighbourhood cats look at our cats and think, "Gee, you're looking well fed!" and our cats are communicating back, "There's lots of food, come on over!", but we had a total of THREE other cats easily and gleefully using our cat door. In fact, they didn't just use it, but they went from the mudroom into the rest of our house! We spent a lot of time chasing cats away from our home, from our porch, from our mudroom, from our den, from underneath our cars (not in a bad way)... One of these delightful stray (but well fed) cats was also an unneutered male who felt the need to establish his territory all over my front porch and back porch and car port... Blehhhh!!!

Time marched on and it came time for us to leave for our vacation. We bought lots of cat food and large bottles of water which we kept in the mudroom. We propped the door from the mudroom to our den open and draped the couches and chair with sheets and blankets to protect them because I am a softie and thought our cats would like the comfort of lying on a couch for a week while we were gone. That was going to be their world, when they wanted to be inside: the mudroom and the den. We gave our key to our neighbour and asked him to just pop in every once in a while to check on the food and water levels, topping them up as necessary. We did tell him that there have been a couple of stray cats around and for him not to worry about it. The day before we left, I also watched a raccoon climb up the big blue spruce just off of our back porch. A raccoon which could likely have squeezed itself into our cat door along with the other animals. At that point, all we could do was put the luggage in the car and lock the door behind us.

Fast forward to returning from the vacation, luggage partially unpacked in the front hall, needing another vacation after the vacation... , our neighbour returns our key. We find out that one time, when he came to check on things, there was a totally different cat in our den. He had startled the cat and it shot around the room, leaping up in the air and actually knocking a painting off the wall! There had been copious amounts of cat hair all over the sheets and blankets draped on the furniture, and , I swear, there was a portion of cat poop on the baseboard in our den. Nowhere else, just clinging vertically to the baseboard!! How does that even happen?

Lord knows what else happened while we were away, what kinds of cat parties occurred, how many other species were in our home, but after we had been home for about a day, Scooter, who NEVER EVER EVER sits on anyone, jumped up on the couch on which I was relaxing with my feet up, and crawled on my lap and purred, for quite a while. Remorse? Forgiveness? Guilt?

Needless to say we had to close the cat door (there is a sliding closure that comes with it, we didn't actually diagonally nail a couple of boards over it) to prevent the onslaught of stray cats. We also spent a lot of time discouraging cats from showing up close to our home. In fact, I really don't even think they were strays. They looked cared for, fed, and they obviously knew how to use a cat door. I just wanted them to not come to MY home. If they go to someone else's home, that's fine with me.

Of course, closing up the cat door then led to more confusion and perhaps you could call it "untraining". Now our cats had to let us know they wanted out and in (and out, and in, and out...) the old fashioned way. Big sigh combined with an eye roll.

Okay, now it's your turn, do you have a pet door, and if you do, what, besides your pet, has come through it?

27 comments:

  1. No cartoon, our last cat, before Miss Kitty, lived outside, was bitten by a dog and ran up a $800 get Bill before dying. I swore my next cat would strictly be indoors unless it was outside with us.
    Our neighbors who have a catdoor had trouble with a raccoon coming in and tearing up their kitchen.

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  2. Oh No! Hopefully, this will be funny to look back on and giggle about some day...maybe not today but someday! lol We have only ever had a cat door to go from our main level down to the basement where the litter box was...and that worked out well.

    Good luck- so now we are back to the "trained people" that jump up and down when Mr/Mrs/Ms Kitty wants to go in OR out! lol xo Diana

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  3. I had raccoons (entire families), plus neighborhood cats, mostly unneutered males. The cat door got locked down faster than fast. I understand you can buy ones that unlock for a special cat collar, but I wasn't about to take on that much expense. No such thing as a free lunch, except for cats with access to a cat door.

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  4. Jenn, I'm sorry I'm giggling...you just write so well. There is a comic note to your tone, but I'm sure it wasn't at all funny as it happened! We have strays that pee under the car, that horrid territorial pee, ick is right. I imagine the cats were just having tea and crumpets each afternoon, no wild parties! :) Ours are indoor cats so thankfully we don't have the doorman issue!

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  5. You’re back! I have been wondering where you were.

    Norbert is an inside cat but he clones himself and lives outside as well. It’s a long, but true, story.

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  6. Ha-ha, sorry, but that is so funny. Hope you had a good vacation.

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  7. I used to feed a friend's cat when she was away and we had the same problem, stray cats getting in and eating the food and running up the walls when I entered. Unnerving for me too! She got some sort of magnet which went on the collar and the door opened only for her cat.

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  8. Oh, my. I had never thought of that particular problem with a cat (or dog) door! Who knew?! We went so far as to buy a door for our medium sized dog, but never installed it. (Luckily . . . maybe!) Like others, I had to giggle while reading your post. What we don't go through for our animals!

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  9. We have put a cat flap into the conservatory which they use intermittently, less at the moment because that is where the puppy sleeps. The puppy is also very keen on sticking her head from outside through the cat flap. Actually one of our cats likes to exit through our bedroom window onto the conservatory roof and down.
    My mum has had a badger through hers luckily only into the porch (our porches are closed in affairs) I had a cat flap in one house I lived in where a very nasty Tom cat came in and scared my puss. We woke to blood curdling screeches and to find a very nasty cat poo mess on the landing. We were never sure if it was my terrified cat or the unpleasant tom.

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  10. ONce I was taking care of my father's cat while he was away. He said.. just go put food in his dish and fresh water every day. Well, what came out of the kitchen when I went to go refresh the feed was a possum, not his cat.

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  11. Thanks everyone for your comments. It seems that we are not the only ones who have had cat door adventures. Raccoons, possums, stray cats... Remember the song "Stray Cat Strut?", sorry mind just made a connection there. For what it's worth, we reopened the cat door and let both cats know, but sure enough this morning, Sampson was at the backporch window and Scooter was at the front.

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  12. Mine are strictly indoor cats, so no cat flap/door. Did you go somewhere warm for a holiday?

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  13. wow, that's a little creepy, and certainly more than a little dissettling! That said, I guess, it could've been MUCH worse? Sorry about the hassle!

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  14. I must say, you made my morning recounting your cat flap ordeal. We have three cats, one rescued as an outdoor stray so she still goes out. I am an all day "cat slave" letting Bella in and out and providing meals and snacks throughout the day.
    We could never have a cat flap as there would always be raccoons and perhaps skunks and of course the neighbor cat as well in to take advantage of free food.
    I do hope you all had a wonderful, restful holiday before coming back home to resume your cat care.

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  15. Yes, other cats came and went and one time a mother raccoon and three babies had to be gotten down from 16 foot high beams on the ceiling. Ours is closed now too, but I wish they could still use it. One solution is to only leave it open during the day.

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  16. Oh, this was hysterical - vertical cat poo? Never, ever! My cat is indoor only because of the large predator population in my area. I've had friends tell me harrowing tales about raccoons and all sorts of wildlife prancing in and out through their cat door.

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  17. Our cats have been indoor cats for the last 35 years - ever since one of our kitties dragged himself home with a broken back. He was apparently hit by a car. After putting Sam to sleep, and drying our tears, we became an indoor kitty house.

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  18. I have all this with my cats and their flap. Neighbourhood cats pop in for a meal and mine no longer bother about this and don't even flinch anymore. Things can look chaotic when I come in, even a tv set on the floor once, several vases broken and tufts of fur of colours not belonging to my cats are not unusual. Sometimes the flap has been approached so fast the flap gets clean knocked flying and I have to put it back on its hinge. We don't have raccoons here.

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  19. At this point, I think maybe we got off lucky!! Love the story of the raccoon family on the beams! No chance of a badger around here, but the thought of a skunk ... that would be the worst! -Jenn

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  20. Oh my gosh this is too funny, Jenn! I thought about installing a doggy door when I bought my house but when I mentioned it on a blog post a reader who is also in upstate NY told me about the raccoon that came in through her doggy door - no thank you!! So, I get my lazy butt off my comfy chair and continue to be a slave to my pups - in, out, in, out, in, out.....sigh.

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  21. So funny!! Sorry, no funny pet stories from me (no pets here) but I am glad to have you back to blogging! Thanks for commenting on my blog.

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  22. Hey Jenn....long time no see!
    I have heard of raccoons using the cat doors...guess you lucked out!
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

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  23. I have four cats (had five but lost my George at 19 years old) and I have a cat flap into the small conservatory that I can shut off from the rest of the house; also a heated shed in the garden just for the cats (if they want to go into) also has a cat flap. I have cat flaps that work on the microchip in my cats neck to open the flap for them; they work very well and stop other cats entering as I have also been through stranger cats spraying and climbing the walls etc

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  24. I can't help but laugh, although I'm sure it wasn't funny on your end. But your writing style is so wonderfully entertaining. Our cats are strictly indoor cats, so there never has been and never will be a cat door. Thank goodness :)

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  25. Well, this is one of those things that when it happens to someone else you laugh and imagine the big ol' party these felines are getting up to -- a cat fight here and there, and who knows who mated where and when! But boy, what an adventure for you, and not a good one. (Not to mention the time and all!) It tells me one thing for sure -- cats are VERY smart! (Love Scooter's pic!)

    No cat door here. Lizzie is an indoor cat and that she will stay, much to her chagrin, at times.

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  26. OMG... this is too funny. It probably wasn't too funny to you when you found 3 cats from the hood using your cat door. Glad you're back. Missed your posts.

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  27. A cat-cam would have been awesome!

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