This is our cat Maurice. About a year ago, we installed a cat door for him. He's an outdoor cat and getting in and out of bed to let him in and out of the house every night was getting really annoying.
When we first adopted Maurice, he actually belonged to our neighbors. He'd clearly lost interest in them, or maybe they'd lost interest in him, but for whatever combination of reasons, he took to spending far more time at our house than theirs. Eventually, we asked them if we could just have him and shockingly, the answer was yes.
His previous owners had one of those fancy cat doors operated by a magnetic system. The cat wears a magnet on his collar and when he gets within a foot or two of the cat door, it unlocks as a result of the magnet and allows him to use the door. This keeps killers, possums and other creepy animals from sneaking in the cat door.
The problem with the magnetic system is that the magnets are not unique. Before we installed our cat door, it came to our attention that Maurice was not the only cat with a magnetic door in the neighborhood. Apparently, he had been seen entering and exiting other cat's homes through their magnetic cat doors. Jeff and I were torn between humiliation upon learning that our cat was a big bully and awe at the fact that he had the balls to just walk into another cat's house. Upon learning about Maurice's house hopping habits, we decided to up the anty. We went to the fanciest pet store in the land and bought him the Jaguar of cat doors - the INFRARED CAT DOOR. The thing cost us like $100 PLUS the hours spent installing the thing. This door does not mess around. It comes with a unique infrared signal that Maurice wears around his neck like a charm bracelet and only his signal will unlock our door. This also prevents him from entering other houses with the magnetic system because he no longer needs to wear the magnet charm around his neck.
We thought we were sooo smart. The problem? The cat door is clear. Maurice spends hours and hours standing in the kitchen looking out his "kitty window", admiring the backyard, watching the fall foliage, checking to see if there are any birds or cats hanging out there. As a result of his almost constant proximity, his stupid cat door locks and unlocks incessantly. While cooking dinner all I hear is "cha-chank..... chank... cha-chank...... chank". The batteries on this fancy door were supposed to last a year or more, but instead we practically had to buy stock in The Tiniest Battery In The World Company because I swear to you that we replaced those batteries like once a week.
I think it was a few months ago that the battery died again and we just finally decided to give up. We manually unlocked it and now he comes and goes as he pleases. I think we even lost his fancy infrared charm. I hope no killers or possums are reading this website and getting sneaky ideas.
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