Since I haven’t yet purchased and installed that new high-tech pet door the entire back door has become the cat door with me as the doorman.
My on-going problem is that the neighbourhood cats has found the pet door really convenient too. So the answer has to be to block the pet door until I buy the new high tech door that only opens to let an animal in if they are wearing one of the special radio collars.
That means that Galaxy—the lone male of the group needs attention whenever I am within 20 feet of the door. In or out, it doesn’t matter. If I am near the door he’ll want to go through it.
Sweety is the most civilized of the four. She will go in or out when she is invited. The real bonus is that she generally keeps moving toward the door once she has started.
Asfera is another story altogether. She will move toward the door once I go over to open it, but once it’s open she’ll plunk her tail end down and ignore me. Needless to say Asfera doesn’t get to go out too much.
The youngest cat—we named her Christmas because it was at a Rock Creek Christmas Craft Fair a few years ago that we went stupid and bought her from a youngster who was trying to raise enough cash to get mama fixed.
This little bundle of fur was too cute and we just couldn’t say no.
Every cat has their own personality but Christmas is just plain unique. Skittish as all get out. If you cough she turns and runs. Turn on the radio or TV in a quiet room and she’ll really freak out.
She learned how to wrestle pretty well though because she became pals with Galaxy who is a really, really long cat. So if Christmas was going to do the play fight thing at all with Galaxy she was going to have to learn some tricks.
When it came to the cat door that we installed last year though Christmas had her special way of using it.
You see, when an animal goes through one of these pet flaps they are pretty vulnerable. They can to put maybe one paw through but then it’s their head and not much else of the defensive apparatus is through and available for use yet.
One thing cats like to always be aware of is what is around the corner waiting to pounce on them. So pet doors pose an extreme danger.
The normal cats—and I use the term loosely—usually just came up to the door and sat down for a few minutes to peek along the edge of the flap to see if there was anything waiting on the other side to pounce on them.
Christmas, on the other hand, developed her own technique. Being small enough she could just take a run at the door and go through it at about Warp Factor 5. If anything was waiting for her she would be past them before they knew it.
Alas this year—with the cat door out of commission and me as a doorman, Christmas has continued to use the race through the door technique. I open it and whoosh— she’s through!
The problem is when I am heading for bed and open the door to let Galaxy in, Christmas will run past me to get out and I wind up standing at my back door in the middle of the night in May waiting for Christmas to come.