Dusty’s Got a Bathroom Door.

Step 1: Cut hole

Our cat Dusty who is now 15 years old is getting lazy.  She has always been an outdoor cat and has never had any health problems.  She can still climb trees and is very good at catching mice and moles and sometimes chipmunks.  She would always go outside to “do her business” although she prefers it when I’m out there with her (especially in winter).  The only time we set out a litter box is when we go away for a few days and our neighbor Martha comes over to feed and check on Dusty.

Previously if Dusty wanted to “go” she would let me know because she can talk.  However this summer I would go downstairs in the morning and sometimes notice cat pee and perhaps more on the dining room floor.  It seems Dusty got the notion that this was the area to go even when the litter box was not here. We tried many things to break her of this newly formed habit.

First, I tried holding her nose close to the scene and yelling in a deep voice…bad, no, bad Dusty, I would tap her on the nose three times and put her outside.  This did not work.

Second, we have this plastic owl I traded for at a Yankee Swap Christmas party a few years ago. The owl has a motion detector so when someone walks by it the eyes flash bright green and it bleats out a rather loud WHO…WHO,  WHO…WHO, etcetera for 20 seconds or so.  It seems that the owl and the pussycat have a pact however.  Dusty would step in front of the owl, do her business and the owl never let out a peep until we would walk by it.  It didn’t matter what angle or position we put that owl it was not going to give her up.  

Third, Lauren read or heard that cats don’t like the sound or feel of Aluminum foil under their feet.  So we began to foil our floor in this area.  It was very shiny and… it didn’t work.  Dusty considered the foil a perfect spot to do her business.

We finally gave up and set up the litter box in the utility (furnace) room off of the kitchen.  Although it’s a fairly warm room because of the furnace we did not want to keep the door open all the time so it was time to install a “cat-door”.   This was relatively easy to do.  First, cut a hole the right size through the door and then install the door.  This particular cat door has a clear plastic flap with a magnet on the bottom that holds it in place until the cat pushes against it.  Dusty does not understand this concept yet.  Even though we would open the flap a bit for her she would not push against it to go through on her own.  I have seen her pull full size doors open with her paws but this plastic flap confounds her.  So I took off the flap (for now) and she jumps through the hole when she needs to.  For this I could have just left the first hole I cut in the door as is and saved $25.00

Next I should think about putting a door on our bathroom.  That’s a story for another day. 

Step 2: Install Cat Door