Diary
March 2002
Cat flap finally fitted! Took almost 2 hours, maybe someone is trying to tell me I am not cut out for DIY. Anyway, the battery is installed and the magnets work for me, how about the cats?
Thomas tries first - instead of just walking towards it and pushing the flap
with his head he decided to stand on his back legs and push with his front feet,
not a good idea, at this point the magnet round his neck loses contact with
the connection and the flap stays shut. Having left him trying for 10 minutes
I open the door! This was not what I had in mind. 
Buster was also out, it has been fairly sunny so he wasn't in a rush to come in. Runcie at this stage goes out. 5 minutes later Runcie the oldest and some would say the most stupid comes back in, no problem. Good for her! A few minutes later Buster is in the lounge no problem for him either it appears.
Georgie finally makes an appearance and I fit her collar, she doesn't think much of it and shoots straight back out. A few minutes later she comes back and....................she can't work the flap either, at last she and Thomas have something in common - stupidity!
Patches has appeared, I watch him come up to the flap, carefully check out
the kitchen, no-one around so in we go! Oh no we don't, what happened? He looks
quite annoyed and stalks back down the garden, no doubt he will try again. So
the main purpose for the purchase is a success all I have to do now is get Thomas
and Georgie to learn how to enter and we'll be home and dry.
A friend of mine came up with a possible solution to the Georgie/Thomas problem.
As they both tend to stand on the step that provides the cover for the battery
and use their feet to try and open the hatch and this action immediately disconnects
the connection of the magnet with catch, why not put a cover over the top part
of the clear flap door? 
This would (hopefully) have the effect of each cat putting
their head down to be able to see into the house, the magnet connecting and
them then pushing the flap with their noses instead of their feet. (This from
the friend who, for the last 3 years has tried to teach Runcie not to stick
her claws in him when she sits on his knee, to NO avail!) Anyway, that
said, I tried this and although I am not totally convinced this is the answer
both Thomas and Georgie have now mastered the art of entering, it still takes
Thomas in the region of 10 or so attempts each time but he does at least get
there in the end. No sign of Patches since he couldn't gain entry however, I
am sure he will be back a few more times before he finds some other sucker!
Slowly but surely we are getting the hang of this, however, a new problem has now emerged. The clicking of the catch when it connects with a magnet is just like a door bell to those feline creatures with sensitive hearing so, Thomas can now tell when an entry is being attempted and rushes off to meet the said cat, if it is Runcie or Buster no problem but, if it happens to be Georgie, well that's easy, "we don't let her in!"
I am away for the next few days so the diary will be updated by the cat sitter, should prove entertaining.
Change of plan, didn't go away so the stories from the cat sitter will have to wait a little longer. 
Been a couple of beautiful Spring days and Thomas has enjoyed every moment of me being in the garden. He has chased leaves, climbed trees and sunned himself. The others have not changed their habits at all. I don't know whether it is due to the slight weight loss with Thomas (0.5kg) but he seems to have found a new lease of life, when he is not playing in the garden he is killing the toy mice over and over again, good to see, it can only help his health. 
Runcie (nearly 15 years) decided to show all who were watching that she is still as agile as she was when she was a kitten and climbed the trellis onto the roof of the carport! She sat there for a moment or two surveying the out lying gardens and then looked down! Big mistake...........she started to howl, I ignored her, believing that what went up must come down, not surprisingly, about 10 minutes later she raced past me at a tremendous speed and headed straight for the bed where she stayed for the next 2 hours.
|