August Travel 1/3 complete - special catsaster edition

[c9]

We're home from Wasaga Beach - woo! Great fun, lots of sun and playing in the lake. We were gone from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon, and the cats were fed by a friend on Saturday evening.

Unfortunately, said friend accidentally closed the door to the basement before he left.

The cat litter is in the basement.

The cats were not impressed.

They tried really hard, but couldn't keep it all in for 48 hours. So Action Cat's favourite giant floor pillow became a litter box, and the bathroom mat became a litter box.

Said friend also left the door to our bedroom open.

So the wonderful duvet on our bed also became a litter box.

Augh.

Cats really don't like that -- they weren't punishing us, they were trying to hide it but had few options to choose from. The shit in the bed was actually "buried", in a sense, in the covers. And the cats were quite quiet when we got home.

I'm removing that goddamned door.

Comments

[rebelprince26.livejournal.com]

doh!!

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe put a cat-flap in the basement door? We considered doing that between the garage and the house, but apparently you're not allowed (something silly about carbon monoxide poisoning. Pish.)

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

(that was me)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Door's too old and would be ruined, so I'd rather just remove it and replace it again when we sell. But if it gets too cold because of that change, maybe we can sacrifice the door.

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

Hm, maybe replace it with a cheap door, temporarily? We found some at Home Depot (I think) that could be cut to size (we needed custom sized doors for the basement apartment). If you went that route, you could go really cheap and just cut a hole in the door yourself, and skip the cat-flap.

[skeezix1000.livejournal.com]

I agree. A cat flap should do the trick. Rather than remove the door, just cut a hole in the bottom and install the flap. I've seen them at Pet Smart up on Laird, but you could probably get them at Small Wonders or Pet Valu on the Danforth.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I've seen them and they would be reasonable. The challenge is that the door is quite old, and would be ruined if cut. My preference (today anyway) is to remove the door entirely, and then be able to replace it when we sell the house. But I'm easily swayed, so who knows.

[skeezix1000.livejournal.com]

The alternative is to buy one of those doohickies that keep doors from hitting walls and baseboards, and to install it within the door frame, at the top of the door. It prevents the door from being accidentally closed, you get to keep your vintage door where it belongs, and you can always remove the doohickie when you need to close the door (i.e a friend with a toddler is visiting).

Good luck.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Ooo, that's an idea. Hmmm.

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, that might be a better solution, if your cats are smart enough to pry open a minimally closed door.

The hardware store is full of doohickeys to keep doors open/closed... just get creative :)

[evad-cgy.livejournal.com]

That's horrible!!! Be interesting to know what they were thinking... and why they chose three different places.