Gayle, that's another good point about the cardboard, it would probably need periodic rebuilding. Other determined cats could possibly tear their way in if determined or if they were rotten enough. My other cats learned to ignore what's inside Linus' box pretty quickly, though they will sometimes sniff around it whenever we try a new food out. And they aren't afraid to use it as a scratching post if they think they won't get caught doing it.
My door is
a petmate, $50 on Amazon.com. Mine was from the clearance section of petsmart though for ~$40. There are also small dog versions for the plus sized cat, but Linus was probably still over 20lbs when he started using this door (it was admittedly a tight fit).
And yes, metal dishes are fairly hilarious when combined with the magnet, but also a bit mean so we swapped them for ceramics. Unfortunately they are just simple magnets, so you can't build two for two separate cats as any magnet will open any door. I'd love those feeding stalls with individual transponders like the fancy dairy cattle setups have.
Vicky & Gandalf (GA) said:
The spoon hanging on the collar is hilarious!
He's earned the nickname "Magneto"
Grayson & Lu said:
Brian - this looks good and sounds like it's quite effective. My Grayson has demonstrated twice for me that he still CAN jump to the table, so I'm wondering if that's been an issue, or if Linus isn't interested in dry cuz he's got access to the canned food?
You answered my question about how to keep the others OUT of the feeding box, but I wonder - did Linus used to wear a collar? If not, has he adapted well to wearing it? None of my guys have been so inclined, and when I've tried on the indoor/outdoor cat, I found his collar in the crawl space of the house next door (where he inspected the work the HVAC guys had done - and left the access door open) and where he ultimately became trapped! Collar was NOT on him when he came out, but fortunately was just inside the door. :smile:
We're pretty positive Linus can't make it up. It's over a 3.5 foot jump and there's never any nearby chairs or obstacles to help him up. He's never been a confident jumper. When he was an otherwise hyperactive kitten, it took him over a week of probing to make the jump clear up to the kitchen counter. The years of obesity did some damage to his confidence also. I know he'd prefer the dry food. It's definitely something we'll keep an eye on as we are working hard on exercising him more, and we'd be pleased as punch if he could demonstrate an ability to make it that high. At that point, we have high cupboards that the rest can make to and it will probably take Linus a few more years to reach
I realize more and more just how lucky we are that Linus is our sick cat. He puts up with pretty much anything we do to him. Over 9 years without a collar (ours are strictly indoor cats) and he put up no fuss at all when we one day put the collar on him. He just takes whatever happens to him as a new fact of life. I'd say he's the embodiment of Zen, but I think he might just be lazy.
