I have had problems with my cats opening the internal kitchen door- but they never close it! A friend suggested putting a cat flap in and kindly gave me one. But the door is too thick. It has a honeycomb of cardboard inside so it’s about 2 inches deep. So the catflap I was given was only thin and left the cardboard exposed. I will donate the first catflap to a charity.
I went and bought another one which has a sleeve inside it covering over the internal structure of the door. It’s screwed and glued in place now as four of the screw holes are not accessible because of the door thickness. Now I’ve got to pursuade the cats to use it. At the moment one is but the other two are reluctant. I might have to try treats! I’m hoping this innovation will keep my home warmer.
This cat is big! He’s the biggest cat we’ve ever had. And yet he’s gentle and much more loving than he was when we first took him in.
He was known as ‘the outside cat’ at first. But we gave him a name and gradually he touched our hearts. He had been abandoned by his previous owners and was thin and a bit standoffish at first. For a long time he was outside and my other two cats stayed inside, they were rescues and we didn’t want them to stray onto the main road. We were also concerned they might catch something from the new cat.
I can’t believe how long it’s been since we let him in the house, and the other two out. Basically I would lock the cat flap so he could come in to eat but I would have to let him out so the two couldn’t go. But even then he was getting bigger and he would push and push on the cat flap until he broke it! We glued the split cat flap back together with a layer of plastic and sellotape. But eventually I got another flap and cut it down so the door to it would fit into the original mechanism.
Since then, this cat has thrived. He jumps up between us when we ask, he’s gentle with the other two (he eats as much as both of them put together though!). I love them all, but he has a special place in my heart.
For months now our cat flap has been broken. Not the main part of it, but the screen that opens in and out. Basically we had tried to keep the big cat in at night by putting the lock on it, but he forced his way through and broke the flap part into three bits. For a while I glued it together, and taped it up with sellotape, but soon that had been ripped so my next idea was to tie it open with some string. I can’t get down on the floor so I couldn’t swap one catflap for another and I didn’t know if I could get a replacement.
Today my sister came over so we decided to go on a search. The local petshop said it was a staywell catflap and they only stock petsafe ones. So we went to the big petstore. We had managed to take the front and flap mechanism off as it had catches you push in to release it. The store had about seven different sorts but according to the customer assistant out catflap was out of date!
Eventually after much head scratching we found one that was about the right size. We couldn’t take it out of the box so it was a guess but I decided to try it.
When we got home I and looked at it I realised the whole catflap was slightly narrower than the old one so the screw holes were closer together and if I were to use the whole thing we would have to get someone in to re-drill the holes. Plan B was to take the plastic flap out of the new one and put it in the old one? Yes it fitted, but it was too stiff, the diameter of the cylinders that go into the holes in the flap were too big. My sister filed the sides of the cylinders down where there was a flange around them and I used a knife to whittle the inside of the tube shaped bits it fitted in…. Result! The flap now swings freely. There is about a two millimeter gap at the bottom but it hangs in the closed position and opens both in and outward.
Now I’ve just got three confused cats, there isn’t a hole to leap through anymore, but a window out to the garden. Bemused looks! I opened the flap for one of them and opened the door for the other… If they want to come back in they will have to learn to use it!
My indoor boy cat went exploring tonight, in the dark. I called him in a few times but it was only after he’d gone onto the next door but one’s garden and got soaked in a heavy shower of rain that he came back in. In the meantime I had to prevent his sister from going out. I can’t cope with both out at the same time.
How did he get out? The cat flap had been forced open by the outside cat again. It’s just indoor boy hasn’t worked out how to open it outwards yet.
Now he’s lying quietly on the mat, having a gentle wash with total unconcern. I know I need to stop worrying though.
Mallaband-Brown 