People who see our cat Katie always comment on how cute she is.They are right.
She has beautiful blue eyes, classic Siamese markings, and long hair.
She looks like one of those china sculptures of cats. She’s just a little bit brighter than those sculptures, too.
Case in point …the cat flap.
As I have mentioned in past posts, Katie likes to be outside. Or inside. Mostly she wants to be on the other side of the door. If I hadn’t given up the privacy of my bathroom long ago to children, I am resigned to visitors a la Katie. Every morning I push the door closed, sit down and look over to see the brown paw poking through space between the door and the frame. We call it "pokie paw."
I know, I know, shut and lock the door. Ah, such luxury that would be. But the door doesn’t shut easily. You have to be really determined if you want to lock it.
Anyway, I digress. I was speaking of the cat flap.
Since we brought Katie home I get my regular exercise opening and closing the door, window, etc. to let her in/out.
In the summer we left the basement window open so she could come and go as she pleased. Sadly the open window allowed various stinging, biting and buzzing bugs to come and go as they pleased as well. Often they fixated on the light above my scrap table, which frequently resulted in shrieking, swearing and hollering for DH to rescue me.
So, we bought a cat flap.
The little door was not particularly pricey as we purchased it at the local home improvement store. But in a fit of well, I don’t exactly know what kind of fit. We decided to install it in the window Katie has been using as her exit.
This added some $25 to the bill. But it’s not too bad a price if I don’t have to be up and down like a jack in a box.
Tonight we brought the window home and installed it.
She hates it.
While she hasn’t actually hissed at it, she has definitely bared her teeth, humped up her back and given it many pointed cold looks.
DH shoved her through it to help her get the idea.
This has not only failed to work, it has encouraged her to loathe the door even more ~ assuming that is possible.
My plan is to put something interesting on the door opposite Katie in hopes she will try to jump at it and realize the door will open if properly encouraged.
She is stupid enough to jump at a closed window, as seen in this photograph of her smartly smacking her face on the handle of an open umbrella.
I was taking a photograph and I wanted some action so I scratched on top of the nylon with one hand and held onto the camera with the other. She fell for the scratching bait. But neither one of us thought about the umbrella handle.
If I can get her to attack the unbrella because of a scratching noise, I have faith I can get her to jump at the cat flap using the same kind of technique.
After all, I taught two boys how to use the potty. Now if only I can teach them how to pick up their socks ….
8 comments:
I'm not a cat lover at all, but your cat is gorgeous! And I firmly believe cats are VERY intelligent creatures.....maybe she doesn't like the door because she loved having the power of making YOU get up and down for her! LOL
Alas, It is a sad fact that you cannot teach a cat to do any useful thing. (Useful to you that is) It is a bit like teaching boys to pick up their socks. The potty they will eventually do, because they find it to thier advantage. The socks they will fail to do on a regular basis because they do not find it to their advantage. So, also, the useful cat trick. Katie will not do it to please you. If she percieves some advantage to herself she may eventually put aside her feline determination to thwart your desires in the service of her own desires, but the advantage must always be hers. This does not, in fact, make her smart. It only makes her feline. The umbrella handle incident is hysterically funny, because cats have such false dignity. They aren't reall ever smart, they are just determined to never make a human happy unless it is incidental to their own happiness. How do I know this? I have the same basic philosophy! Long live the lazy and insolent!
Beautiful cat!!! TOO FUNNY!!!
I love your cat. She reminds me of the long hair Siamese we had for 15 years. She will eventually learn the cat flap (if she so desires) because Siamese cats are so dang smart. Too bad you can't go in and out the cat flap yourself. If she saw you do it a couple of times, she would get over her fright. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone in your house is that small LOL.
Funny story...when we first move to FL, our cat used to go out the doggy door. This worked out very well until the day she brought a poisonous coral snake into the house....doggy door went "bye-bye"
I want a cat! Why should a cat train itself if it can train it's human.
I soooo love your cat! I love your story also! If you have one of those red little point lights that they have in some keychains that may work for you if your shine it on the door. If you don't have one let me know I have a BSA one! LOL
OMG, you had me rolling with this one!
We had a Siamese, but she was a blue point. She lived to be over 19, and was smart, as cats go. Unlike the dummy we have now.
Good luck training her. Ha! As if!
She's a cat, for crying out loud!
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