We have had a small dog cot for a number of years. Our small dog does not care for the cot, and so it has been under the large dog cot. I thought maybe the cats would like it, but the catio does not have any room on the ground. So I made it into a hanging shelf.
I should have thought of this years ago.
Thor the gray tabby still hasn’t figured out how to go back outside through the new cat door.
I didn’t understand how and why the crocheted cotton coverlet on the bed was ending up wadded up in a heap. I suspected cat action, but it took a few days to catch the culprit in the act.
The cat is bored and looking for trouble. He really needs to stop being afraid of the cat flap and go out into the catio again.
We broke down and purchased a well engineered cat door for the window to the catio. It keeps out the weather and more importantly, flies.
The cats are used to going in and out at the right side of the window. The first solution was cutting a flap in the screen of the window. In winter, that was very cold. The next solution was to replace the screen with flexible vinyl, with a flap cut in. With a heavy curtain in front of the window, it was better than the screen, but the window still needed to be closed during a rain storm.
The door insert fits right into the window channels and reduces the air leak to almost nothing. We could even take away the curtain and get more light. The cats were not impressed. We tried just poking them out the window, but the magnetic click at the bottom scares Thor, the gray tabby, my 17 pound baby. We tried holding the flap open, but that lets in the flies. We decided to just let the cats figure it out.
Izzy the calico was the first to figure it out.
Thor has still not braved making the window click. He will sit on the windowsill looking mournfully out, but won’t let me near him (poking him out the window was traumatic, the door lock clattered in a scary way). It has been a week and he still won’t go out. On the plus side, we see more of him when he doesn’t spend his whole day outside eating bugs and frogs. He might loose some weight without all the extra wriggly snacks too.
It is a good thing he is cute.
Apparently round woven coasters are cat magnets.
The fourth paw is also on the coaster, just hidden behind the front paws. I’m not quite sure this is “if I fits I sits”, but it seems like it should be.
Critters and Craft 