I tend to get ideas . . .

I tend to get ideas and I present them enthusiastically to my husband.  More often than not, he goes along with me. I talk really fast and he goes, "Huh?"

So, last year, after the umpteenth time of grabbing a cat off our window screen because she wanted to come into the house, I said, "Hey, let's get a kitchen door that has a built-in pet door so the little lovelies can come and go as they please!"

Husband:  "Great idea!"  And since husband is retired, he now has the time to implement my looney ideas much more quickly.

So:



Ta-daah! Kitchen door with pet door.



We have had it a year now.

Pros:  Cats can come and go as they please.

Con:  Not always the cats we expect.

Con:  Emma the dog will not use it.  We forgot that she is a polite dog and must be invited inside or outside.  She is a sweetie.  We did try training her by tossing bacon through the pet door so she would go through it, but even that didn't work. She stared at us with her big brown eyes as if to say, "You have got to be kidding."

Con:  Over the past year we have chased lizards and birds around the house.  These are the creatures that were still alive when the cats brought them in via the pet door.  We've managed to capture the living creatures and free them to the outside world.

Con:  Dead birds and rodents.  This morning I came upon a dead English sparrow by my dining room table chair, feathers lying everywhere and two cats staring at it and growling at one another, which prompted this blog posting.  Last night there was a dead rat in the dining room just like the night before.  We have, for the most part, entered hunting season full on and the cats want to share their catches with us.  Now we are back to shutting the kitchen door in the evening so the kitties can't bring in their prizes.

Con:  Beloved grandchildren viewing the pet door as a possible escape hatch:




Logan and Laci, Thanksgiving 2010

So, I don't know.  Like some of my ideas, this one might have been better in theory rather than practice.