A standoff with my cat

[bvdr]

For months we have been talking about getting those little cat doors so shadow can go out and come back in on his own without us having to prop open the french doors from the livingroom to the back screen porch. We could put up with the cold drafts and even the loss of air-conditioning in the summer but right now the pollen is so bad. This time of year, in our area, if you leave a window open at night you end up with everything in that area of the house covered with sunshine yellow pollen.

A few days ago they were installed and now we are at war with shadow. Now that the human door is closed, he is insisting on having a "doorman" to open and close it for his convenience. He is going so far as exiting the kitchen to the garage, through his new cat door, running through the garage and exiting through the cat door in the side door...........and then running around the back of the house to meow at us through the french door to let him in! Right now we are at a standoff.

Have any of you trained your cat for these doors? He seems to be going in and out of them OK but I don't think he likes them. I know it is so much safer if he was strictly an indoor cat but for him it would be like a jail sentence.

We think he was injured in his youth and messed up his voicebox. When he adopted our family a few years ago, he was totally debilitated and did not have the strength to climb the stairs. Our son and his wife took him in and nutured him back to health. But..........he has an awful voice! And very loud.
I'm sure we will win this war, but in the meantime, the battle rages.

 

[LoriSue]

Betty, my cat did the same thing. He had no problem going out the cat door but thought it was more fun to stand at one of the other doors and yell until I let him back in. I think he was laughing at me. I couldn't take stand to hear him yell and would feel guilty and get up to let him in the other door every time. Eventually that really got to be a pain in the butt. He didn't care what I was doing at the time......it was my job to stop what I was doing immediately and cater to his needs. What I ended up doing was fixed a plate of food for him (I feed him Fancy Feast Fish and Shrimp) and when he went out the cat door I called him before he got too far away and set the plate down just inside the door so that he could smell it but had to come back in before he could have it. I only had to do that once. When he came back in through the kitty door I swear he had a look on his face like "Uh-oh now she knows I can come back in this way...the jig is up!" From that point on I never had another problem again.
Let me know how things work out.
Lori

 

[Susan BAV]

Hi Betty -

I love my cats (and dogs) too! Where we live, if you don't put your outdoor cats in at night, well..., they become part of the food chain. And they don't just get nibbled on by the coyotes. A lot (I've even heard that "most") of the cat-catchers are owls! So, we keep most (not Sage though because she's a psycho) of the five cats in the garage at night. We don't have a conventional cat-door, for several reasons. What we have is a security screen door, which my husband cut space through at the bottom for the cats to come and go, and a solid door. And at night we just close the solid door. My favorite cat, Oscar, has house privileges. I really love that cat.

Regarding your Shadow getting used to his cat-door, have you tried rubbing catnip on it (you'll probably have to really crush the stuff to bring up the oils/scent)? I remember reading one time that that could help the cats to be on better terms with their new cat-door. And once his scent gets on it also, he'll probably be okay with it.

But cats usually aren't too adaptable, are they. I've rarely had one move well either. And when we had the fires here, we couldn't evacuate all of them and the dogs too so we just took Oscar (and the dogs, Clover and Daisy) and fixed the garage doors so the other cats (Chester, Zinnia, Cobar, and Psycho-Sage) could get in or out, as they chose. The smoke smell in the garage was awful for quite some long time after that. But Oscar is such an exceptionally strong part of our family that he put up with the evacuation and temporary relocation and subsequent return like it was nothing; he was just glad to be with us! He's really kind of like a dog-cat (and third son)! Did I mention that I really love that cat?

~Susan W

 

[bvdr]

Thanks guys for the hints. I'll try the catnip and the food tricks. He has been laying on his back in the kitchen batting at the cat door with his feet like it was a punching bag. This is starting to get humorous.

He doesn't go out at night because he has the same bedtime we do. As soon as I head for the bedroom he is right behind me. By that time he has had his nightime snack and a drink of water. He likes a back rub, a thorough scratch on this neck and head, and then his shoulder massaged for a little while and then he sleeps until about 6AM. He is a little spoiled.

 

[Les]

A little?

 

[SJJ]

Betty,
My two cats rule the house which We've come to accept is their due. I have one totally indoor and one indoor/outdoor cat. For the most part, the cat door is kept closed but when we go to our country place we take the indoor cat (Pogo) with us and leave Co-de (that's short for co-dependent) at home with the cat door open. Just to make sure he knows it's now available for his use I prop it open with a pencil or stick which will pop loose the first time he goes either in or out. The fact that the door is 2/3 open may make it more appealing to your baby (2-3 days would probably be enough) until he gets used to it. Add the treats or catnip mentioned above and I would be very surprised if he doesn't prefer his new found independence. Let us know who gets trained first-you or him
Sue

 

[Georgia]

Of 4 cats, only one doesn't use the cat door - she's 16 and very small and although I'm sure she could, I won't force the issue.

The others have no problem using it (except for BeBe who thinks she has to pull it toward her - go figure) but still like to be invited in and still occasionally climb the screens. They just like to rule the roost.

I'm sure your Shadow will break down and use it - particularly when it rains and you're not immediately available to be doorman!

 

[hensylee]

cousin built a doggy door for the chihuahuas when I had two of them. Since then Miss SS came along and she's a hound, two cats, and daughter moved back home with me and brought her two cats. All have learned that if they want to come in, the door is 'the way'. Some resisted but finally 'got it' and we have no trouble anymore. Time and lack of answering the cat call will work. To train a newbie, we just pushed them softly through several times and then more of less left them to their own devices to figure it out.

Well, except for daughter - she uses the regular door.

 

[Ross]

1. make sure the cat is outside.
2. release a very large dog to chase said cat
3. Cat now has been trained how to use those doors!

 

[LoriSue]

ROSS! VERY VERY BAD!!!!
BUT I WOULD LIKE TO DO THAT TO MY CARDIOLOGIST ONCE! LOL
Lori

 

[Granbonny]

Cat door???

Cat door???

Like a piece of rubber? hanging down? for them to come and go? Where I live..I would have a raccoon, skunk, squirrel, rabbit, fox possum, and Lord knows what else to come in. Rufus does drive me nutty..Wants out at daylight..Comes back in for breakfast, wants out again. Comes back in for lunch, wants out again..Comes in at five P.M. Wants out again..but keep him in house..Too many animals that could grab him at night. Then he will get on computer and I have to put him in basement and let him out when I'm done chatting. My indoor cat, sleeps all day, all night and just wants to eat everytime she see's me go to kitchen. Rufus threw up this afternoon. think he finally caught the lizzard in the railroad tie..He's been stalking for a few days.. Bonnie P.S. Lorisue..We feed ours Fancy
Feast at #.79 cents for the little can. But anything else gives our old one running bowels Leave a bowl of dry food out too. Never eat it when we are here..but bowl is empty if we leave them overnight.I feed my Papillion Cesar Select Dinner..at $.79 a small can and he eats 2 a day.. I fugure that's about $100.00 a mont..but on the other hand..you have to mortgage your home when they get sick and have to go to Vet's. Bonnie

 

[LoriSue]

Bonnie, here the Fancy Feast is only .36 cents for a little can. I usually buy it a couple of cases at a time so that I don't run out unexpectedly.
The only thing that ever came in my kitty door unannounced (besides the new cat I adopted) was a oppossum. I don't like them....they creep me out. I chased it out and kept the inner door shut for a while and never saw it again so I started opening up the inner door again about a month later and the damn opposum came back and brought her babies !!!!! I don't like those things for some reason. Luckily I haven't seen any of them for quite a while. I think that is because the neighbors dog has been hanging around and chases them off.
Lori

 

[SJJ]

Lori,
We'd ALL like to do that to your cardiologist once!
Sue

 

[Susan BAV]

Bonnie -

Speaking of critters getting in the cat-doors... Once a couple of years ago before two of our kitties became part of the food chain (sweet Parsley, who was Psycho-Sage's sister, and Bleu, who was Psycho-Sage's polydactyl male offspring --such a cool cat), which made SEVEN, count 'em, SEVEN cats in our garage at night, we had a RAT in there! A big one! The cats just chased it around and cornered it but then just kind of looked goofily at each other when it chattered it's evil teeth at them. I was telling one of my friends about it and she said, "You're feeding those cats way too much!"

And lizards make my cats sick too but do you think they'd learn to quit eating (half) of them (and leaving the other half for me to step on when I trot out to the garage)?!?!

Betty -

You didn't know what you started; we all want to brag on our terrific cats!

~Susan W

 

[tommy]

This week I saw an ad for a cat door that is "selective". The cat wears a special collar that signals the door when only your cat is close. Must work like an invisible fence. Sorry, my radar wasn't up high enough for details.

 

[Granbonny]

LoriSue. Where do you buy your FancyFeast. Even WalMart's is that high.. Susan..Rufus is now laying on the Dining Room table. Know now, he's full of lizard. Hope it taught him a lesson. We don't eat on Dining Room table..Just for guests. Bonnie

 

[Ross]

^ Oh Lorisue, looky here!

 

[Granbonny]

Tom

Tom

I have never put a cat collar on any of my cats..flea, ect. YEARS ago, I put a flea collar on one of my cats..She came hobbling home on 3 feet. One foot caught in collar. Rufus is so wild, he hangs upside down on trees..trying to catch squirrels. Would hate for a small limb to hang around collar. looks like our thread may catch the Sex thread. Lots of Cat Lovers here. Bonnie

 

[Harpoon]

We have two cats, Tori (short for Tornado which he earned after a death-defying leap from an attic access down two flights to a hard floor, breaking a hip in the process, he was a kitten) and Matilda.

They've both been outside cats but now are inside exclusively. Back in the day, they could open doors for themselves to get outside, but needed to call to get let back in.

Tori's a fat mafia kitty. he thinks he's in charge of everything and that EVERYTHING is his.

he also doesn't cover after using the littler box and he screams and cries and blats if there isn't ENOUGH food in his dish, not that it's empty, jsut that it isn't full enough...

Oy.

Matilda's a little queen and she can be a bit skittish at times. VERY prim and proper, though on occassion you can catch her dodging in and out of a brown paper grocery bag if left out on the floor on it's side...

They camp out with us as we're getting to bed and spend maybe an hour or so at the foot of our bed before moving on into the living room for the evening.

Tori also likes to join us when we read stories and put the lil' one to bed every night.

He's the only cat I've known that will come to me when I call his name, even now. he may think he's boss, but he does know that, at least some of the time, I'm really the one in charge. =)

 

[Abbanabba]

Oh how I miss have little kitty-cats running round the house! I've been "in-between" places and travellng for the last 3 1/2 years, but hopefully I'll be a little more settled later this year at which time I'd love to get a Burmese. Meanwhile, I'll just live vicariously through your stories

A : )