Cat flap troubles
When we bought our first cat flap, it was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. It came with full instructions about fitting and measuring. And I don’t just mean measuring the door and the flap, it also suggested measuring the distance of the cats’ bellies from the floor. We dismissed this as a ridiculous, not to mention dangerous idea – we had Gizmo at the time, one of our more feisty cats, who wouldn’t have put up with such behaviour without dishing out severe retribution...
And so naively, we showed the cats their new door and wondered why it wasn’t an instant hit... it seemed that cats would rather have a door opened for them in time honoured fashion than push themselves nose first into the house. Although as time went on the full implication seemed to dawn on them – they could now bring their prey into the house and finish off their hunting games in comfort... sometimes this turned into weekend manoeuvres when they lost a mouse under a closed door, the most memorable one resulting in a mouse scurrying off under our bed in the middle of the night. Cleo was quickly let in to remove the mouse, which she did very efficiently after a quick rummage under the bed.
Another escapee had more luck, and it set up residence in the pantry. That one was only discovered by its own untidiness; it had shredded a plastic bag, and gnawed on some vegetables, then set up home in a vegetable rack.
from Outnumbered by Cats by Anne M Stephenson
