Freedom For Charlie!

When we got back from the family reunion in July, Michael had about had it with Charlie. He's such a spiteful cat. When we're gone we don't want him to be outside the whole time so we keep him in, but then he acts out by peeing everywhere. We were going on another vacation in August so we thought we would try to make it better for him by installing a cat door. 

I had wanted a cat door for a long time, but honestly there was just no where for it to go. We thought about putting one into the garage and then out from the garage, but Charlie hates the garage. He's scared to death of it. We knew he would never use it. Then Michael decided it could go one place....right where his cat food and water is in the dining room. So I found one on Amazon that had good reviews and ordered it. 

Here it is out of the box. Now I know that some people are all worried about creatures coming in, but we are not in the least. Charlie is such a territorial animal and frankly a killer. That cat has killed so many things if anything came in our house it would be a death sentence for it. I know that people also worry about their pet bringing in animals that aren't quite dead yet. That hasn't been an issue because Charlie is a creature of habit. He always leaves his kills on the front porch or in the front yard. The cat door is around on the backside of the house so we aren't worried about that either. 

Time to cut into the wall. 

Remove some insulation. 

Pop the inside portion of the door into it's spot to make sure it fits. 

Once Michael knew it fit he made some holes from the inside so he could measure and cut from the outside. 

Cutting the hold on the outside. Now you might be wondering where in the world is the cat going to go once he goes out the door. Cats don't fly. We'll get to that later! :) 

Watching Daddy work is exciting....right Jack?

Right! :) 

Ta Da! One cat door! I posted pictures on FB and someone was concerned about the fact that the door is so close to an outlet. First off the cat door is mounted between the studs so the wires are on the other side of a 2x4...plus the cat door comes with walls as you can see. As for where Charlie is going to go.....

Daddy made him his own little kitty deck that is connected to the people deck. It is only temporary until the workers are finished with the siding and then he'll build him something a bit nicer, but for now it works. 

I was worried it might be a little too small, but Charlie can navigate it just fine. 

Michael thought he would go out, walk to the right get on the deck and then go down the stairs, but Charlie doesn't waste time. He just jumps out and goes right to the stairs instead. 

First time out the cat door. For the first little while we didn't have any flaps on it. Then we taped a Ziploc bag on one side where it was only hanging down an inch or so. Every few days I would lower the bag until it was completely covering the hole. Then I put another bag on the other side and did the same thing. We finally put one of the actual flaps on one side and he wasn't too happy about it. We ended up taking it off so he wouldn't revert to his bad ways while we were on vacation. Now we have a flap on one side and he's finally gotten used to it. Just in time for the weather to cool down. 

We moved his cat condo outside since it was where the cat door was and we needed the space to move his food and water over. He hasn't used the thing in ages. We are eventually going to toss it since the top landing area broke off, but for right now the deck is where it is. This is just another bit of proof that cats are jerks. The ornery thing chooses to sit outside instead of coming in and being with us.