I got a call from Nancy this morning, telling about what my bad kitties have up to. Whenever they're bad, they're my kitties. When they're good they're our kitties.

We've got a cat flap in the back door to let the furkids in/out when the weather is too hot or too cold to leave the door standing open. It's one of those with a hard plastic flap and a little locking mechanism that allows it to open in only, open out only, open both ways, or not open at all. After we installed it we found that the kitties were able to manipulate the control knob - no small feat for a creature without opposable thumbs!

Nancy then rigged a hard piece of plastic that can be velcroed over the inside portion of the flap, including the control knob. The kitties soon figured out how to rip off the plastic shield as well.

We then started parking an 18 pound tub of kitty litter in front of the flap when we had the cats all in the house and didn't want them going out. That has worked well - until this morning.

It seems that someone managed to push the bucket of litter far enough out of the way to allow them to remove the plastic shield, turn the knob to the "open" position, and go outside. When Nancy got up this morning the bed was curiously devoid of kitties, and she heard a plaintive meowing coming from the kitchen. Amelia had tried to join Sammy and Tabitha in their early morning romp, but the space between the litter bucket and the flap was too small for Amelia's "gravitationally gifted" body to squeeze through. The kitty culprits also didn't think very clearly about the end of their escaped, either. The litter bucket, while moved enough to allow the kittens to squeeze through, was still in such a place that it wouldn't allow the flap to move back inwards. The two kittens had essentially locked themselves into the back yard! When Nancy opened the back door they both dashed gratefully into the house. I doubt they were out there too long - they both usually sleep until 4:00AM or so - but they were no doubt quite thrilled with their great adventure.

Copyright © Dan Mahoney
April 14, 2004