“Installing a cat door” or “How to temporarily reverse your cat’s litter training”

Hello, dear friends.  It’s been awhile.

And as such?  I’m going to teach you something.  Like how to install a cat door.

Or, how to make your cat relieve herself on the floor for the first time in her life because she’s so afraid of a cat door.

Remember camo-cat?

 She was trying to blend in this day.

Incidentally, I recently scrapped this photo:

Based on this sketch:

And fell in lurve with these little clear bobbles (and tried to position them a la Jen!)

But I digress.

Let’s say you move into a new house.

And this new house has a basement.

And you have a dog with some strange issues because she was a stray.

And you’ve never had her in a house with a basement before.

And apparently she likes to poop in the basement.

Yeah.  Let’s say that.

And then let’s say that you have a cat whose litter box needs to go in the basement.  So you have to leave the door open for the cat and closed for the dog.

It’s quite a conundrum, but never fear, friends who are following me on this hypothetical ride!  I have a solution!

Enter: the interior cat door!

It was super cheap.  Like, $10.17 or something at Home Depot.

Plus?  It was really easy.  And fun.  ‘Cause I got to cut through a door, y’all.

Let’s begin, shall we?

First, take the plastic rim of the cat door and put it where you want it.  You may want to measure this part, but since I’m badass, I didn’t.  That’s right.  I said it.  My cat door may be slightly askew.  Whatcha gonna do about it, huh?

Then, drill through the door at the corners.

Next, take a Skil saw (I think that’s what they’re called – the handheld one with the jigsaw-type blade), insert it through the holes and cut from one to the next.  And no, I didn’t take the door off the hinges.  Just more evidence of my badassity.

You may need to cut the back side of the door a little if your cuts weren’t totally perpendicular to the door.  That’s where I freehanded it a little.  Did I mention I’m a total badass with no regard for proper power-tool usage?  Then, fit the plastic into the hole and attach it with the screws and foam tape.

And there you have it.  A cat door of epic proportions!

Excellent!  Check out that plastic flap with all its dog-keeping-out-ity!  This is going to be awesome!

And now to teach the cat to go through it.

I tried coaxing.  I tried treats.  I tried shoving her through. 

But you know that phrase, “don’t let the door hit you on the way out?”

Yeah.  Apparently neither did she.  So I woke up the next morning to cat poop on my kitchen floor.

So now we have a flapless cat door.

But at least everyone’s pooping in the right place again.