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mouse_rants....like how to use power tools.
see, i live in coyote country - or i guess more properly, coyote suburbia, where cats are a featured item on the coyote's menu. so the free and easy lifestyle of the cats i grew up with, in and out and staying out all night whenever they please is not one i can really permit.
now, i had two cats before the kittens. the first cat, jennie baldrin, adopted me, and i wasn't sure for a while whether she was just visiting, or needed a home, or what, so i was reluctant to keep her shut up in the house (plus, she was clearly used to being out at night, so i figured she was experienced in dealing with coyotes). but she started insisting on staying in when i went to work, so i decided, in case she really did belong to someone else, that i should put in a cat door. so i got a simple flap-type door that fit into a panel that fit into my sliding glass door (nifty system, actually). it did have a panel you could slide over the flap, in the event you needed to keep the cat on one side of the door or the other, but for 5 years, that was all i had.
i left it in place when i adopted the second cat, munchkin, except for using the panel at night, so munch couldn't go out without my knowing it (this was for the first month or so, until i was sure she knew the neighborhood). in the meantime, jennie had decided that she preferred a single-cat household, and since i was apparently determined to keep that _other_ cat, well, _she_ would find someone else who appreciated her. (as it turns out, she had belonged to someone else, a lovely couple - with three young boys and a husky dog. so she had rather a history of deciding on her own living arrangements. she has moved in with another neighbor, and apparently decided to become an indoor cat.)
ANYWAY - poor munch was lonely by herself, so i adopted angelina kitten. i didn't want to limit munch, since she had been used to going out, but i didn't want angelina running around unsupervised. so i got a magnetic cat door, gave munch a magnet, and set the door up so any cat could come in (in case angelina managed to get out), but only munch could go out. i figured i might give angelina a magnet when she got older...and then one night munch went out and never came back. so i decided that i was no longer going to let cats out at night. (and got fred to keep angelina company...it's a slippery slope)
the magnetic door continued to be a good solution, however. i could let them stay out when i went to work in the morning (they tended to disappear completely when i tried to get them in) - and once they came in they couldn't go out. so all was good...until december.
see, the magnetic door had a hard plastic flap, with a little bit of a frame. the lock mechanism consists of two little pins sticking up in the bottom center of the door. if the outside pin is up, the flap can only swing in. this was sturdy enough to deter fred, who spend considerable time digging frantically at the flap (sometimes for hours at a time).
my little girl, however, is a bit more clever. she, it seems, realized that if she could lift the door, she could slip out. and apparently there was enough of a rim around the door that she could snag it with a claw and get it up.
well, not perfect - but the door could be totally locked, by engaging a second pin on the inside of the door. tried this first one night when i went out to the movies, leaving the door locked and both cats inside. when i came home, angelina came running up to greet me. i checked the cat door, and it was unlocked. i was sure i had checked it, but decided i must have spaced, because the switch was actually turned to 'unlock', and she couldn't have done that, right? so when i went out the next night, i double checked that the door was locked. and once again, she was outside waiting for me.
so i looked at the door a little more closely, and realized that if she pushed down the inside locking pin, it would actually turn the lock switch to 'unlock'. and the pin was in such a position that she would push it when she tried to do her usual trick of lifting the door.
well, that clearly wouldn't do, so i started looking for a different model door. now, this is where the power tools come in. see, the cat door was still mounted in a panel that fit in the sliding glass door. i had gotten a new, somewhat wider panel with the magnetic door, but it was more expensive than the cat door, to say nothing of a real hassle to get shipped. besides, i already had two panels, and i wasn't interested in building up a collection. so i wanted a door that would fit in the existing panel. the panel is just like a sliding door, with an aluminum frame, and a little open rectangle at the bottom, with 4 holes where the cat door was bolted in. so easy enough to switch out doors - just take out the screws and find something with holes in the same places, and put it in. right.
called the pet door people, and found one that looked like it would fit, and had a much sturdier lock. when it showed up, it was the perfect width...and about two inches shorter than the old one. well, no problem, all i had to do was get a piece of wood or something to fill in the two inches, and drill two new holes.......
now, i do own a power drill. and i had seen the locksmith drill a hole in the aluminum door when she installed a sliding door lock. so this could be done, right? ....right?
well, to make a long story short, it could be done. (turns out an important trick is to make sure the drill is not set in the 'reverse' position). so last weekend i mounted the new door, with a little wooden panel above, and some foam insulating around the edge, and the screws just a _little_ bit crooked. and i headed off to work monday with both cats inside, and the door set to 'in only'. and when i came home, _both_ cats were outside waiting for me.
(i guess i should be happy that at least they come to meet me when i get home. if there were no sign of them at all, i probably would have just collapsed on the spot from anxiety.)
seems the new door had this sort of brush-like edge, for quiet closing, which left just enough space for a few claws to get in and lift the door. (and apparently, it was easy enough to do that fred could learn by example.)
SOOO - back to the internet. and a new catdoor, this one with a secondary sort of frame that goes over the door, which should (i hope) keep the kittens from getting to the door. lovely...and about 1/8" too wide for the door panel. AND requiring holes in a completely different place for the screws.
so i just spent two hours getting it rigged in. i'm actually getting almost competent at drilling holes in aluminum - except for the going through two pieces in a straight line BIT. figured out, though, that since the two pieces didn't fit together anyway, as long as i could screw each side into one side of the door frame, it didn't matter that one screw didn't go all the way through both sides.
so i now have _another_ new cat door - not quite as neat a mounting as the last one (plus i realized afterward that there were all kinds of places for air to get through, so now there is foam insulation sort of stuffed all around it)...but hopefully, it will be foolproof. right now the kittens are pretending that it is simply too weird for them to deal with, so i have the door propped open, but they each have gotten through it, so i am about to unprop the door, set the lock, and see how it goes. in the event that this works, i have 3 catdoors available, if anyone wants one.
if it doesn't work, i will have 4 catdoors and two cats up for grabs.
see, i live in coyote country - or i guess more properly, coyote suburbia, where cats are a featured item on the coyote's menu. so the free and easy lifestyle of the cats i grew up with, in and out and staying out all night whenever they please is not one i can really permit.
now, i had two cats before the kittens. the first cat, jennie baldrin, adopted me, and i wasn't sure for a while whether she was just visiting, or needed a home, or what, so i was reluctant to keep her shut up in the house (plus, she was clearly used to being out at night, so i figured she was experienced in dealing with coyotes). but she started insisting on staying in when i went to work, so i decided, in case she really did belong to someone else, that i should put in a cat door. so i got a simple flap-type door that fit into a panel that fit into my sliding glass door (nifty system, actually). it did have a panel you could slide over the flap, in the event you needed to keep the cat on one side of the door or the other, but for 5 years, that was all i had.
i left it in place when i adopted the second cat, munchkin, except for using the panel at night, so munch couldn't go out without my knowing it (this was for the first month or so, until i was sure she knew the neighborhood). in the meantime, jennie had decided that she preferred a single-cat household, and since i was apparently determined to keep that _other_ cat, well, _she_ would find someone else who appreciated her. (as it turns out, she had belonged to someone else, a lovely couple - with three young boys and a husky dog. so she had rather a history of deciding on her own living arrangements. she has moved in with another neighbor, and apparently decided to become an indoor cat.)
ANYWAY - poor munch was lonely by herself, so i adopted angelina kitten. i didn't want to limit munch, since she had been used to going out, but i didn't want angelina running around unsupervised. so i got a magnetic cat door, gave munch a magnet, and set the door up so any cat could come in (in case angelina managed to get out), but only munch could go out. i figured i might give angelina a magnet when she got older...and then one night munch went out and never came back. so i decided that i was no longer going to let cats out at night. (and got fred to keep angelina company...it's a slippery slope)
the magnetic door continued to be a good solution, however. i could let them stay out when i went to work in the morning (they tended to disappear completely when i tried to get them in) - and once they came in they couldn't go out. so all was good...until december.
see, the magnetic door had a hard plastic flap, with a little bit of a frame. the lock mechanism consists of two little pins sticking up in the bottom center of the door. if the outside pin is up, the flap can only swing in. this was sturdy enough to deter fred, who spend considerable time digging frantically at the flap (sometimes for hours at a time).
my little girl, however, is a bit more clever. she, it seems, realized that if she could lift the door, she could slip out. and apparently there was enough of a rim around the door that she could snag it with a claw and get it up.
well, not perfect - but the door could be totally locked, by engaging a second pin on the inside of the door. tried this first one night when i went out to the movies, leaving the door locked and both cats inside. when i came home, angelina came running up to greet me. i checked the cat door, and it was unlocked. i was sure i had checked it, but decided i must have spaced, because the switch was actually turned to 'unlock', and she couldn't have done that, right? so when i went out the next night, i double checked that the door was locked. and once again, she was outside waiting for me.
so i looked at the door a little more closely, and realized that if she pushed down the inside locking pin, it would actually turn the lock switch to 'unlock'. and the pin was in such a position that she would push it when she tried to do her usual trick of lifting the door.
well, that clearly wouldn't do, so i started looking for a different model door. now, this is where the power tools come in. see, the cat door was still mounted in a panel that fit in the sliding glass door. i had gotten a new, somewhat wider panel with the magnetic door, but it was more expensive than the cat door, to say nothing of a real hassle to get shipped. besides, i already had two panels, and i wasn't interested in building up a collection. so i wanted a door that would fit in the existing panel. the panel is just like a sliding door, with an aluminum frame, and a little open rectangle at the bottom, with 4 holes where the cat door was bolted in. so easy enough to switch out doors - just take out the screws and find something with holes in the same places, and put it in. right.
called the pet door people, and found one that looked like it would fit, and had a much sturdier lock. when it showed up, it was the perfect width...and about two inches shorter than the old one. well, no problem, all i had to do was get a piece of wood or something to fill in the two inches, and drill two new holes.......
now, i do own a power drill. and i had seen the locksmith drill a hole in the aluminum door when she installed a sliding door lock. so this could be done, right? ....right?
well, to make a long story short, it could be done. (turns out an important trick is to make sure the drill is not set in the 'reverse' position). so last weekend i mounted the new door, with a little wooden panel above, and some foam insulating around the edge, and the screws just a _little_ bit crooked. and i headed off to work monday with both cats inside, and the door set to 'in only'. and when i came home, _both_ cats were outside waiting for me.
(i guess i should be happy that at least they come to meet me when i get home. if there were no sign of them at all, i probably would have just collapsed on the spot from anxiety.)
seems the new door had this sort of brush-like edge, for quiet closing, which left just enough space for a few claws to get in and lift the door. (and apparently, it was easy enough to do that fred could learn by example.)
SOOO - back to the internet. and a new catdoor, this one with a secondary sort of frame that goes over the door, which should (i hope) keep the kittens from getting to the door. lovely...and about 1/8" too wide for the door panel. AND requiring holes in a completely different place for the screws.
so i just spent two hours getting it rigged in. i'm actually getting almost competent at drilling holes in aluminum - except for the going through two pieces in a straight line BIT. figured out, though, that since the two pieces didn't fit together anyway, as long as i could screw each side into one side of the door frame, it didn't matter that one screw didn't go all the way through both sides.
so i now have _another_ new cat door - not quite as neat a mounting as the last one (plus i realized afterward that there were all kinds of places for air to get through, so now there is foam insulation sort of stuffed all around it)...but hopefully, it will be foolproof. right now the kittens are pretending that it is simply too weird for them to deal with, so i have the door propped open, but they each have gotten through it, so i am about to unprop the door, set the lock, and see how it goes. in the event that this works, i have 3 catdoors available, if anyone wants one.
if it doesn't work, i will have 4 catdoors and two cats up for grabs.
