- Joined
- Jun 15, 2016
- Messages
- 80
- Purraise
- 64
I recently posted about a stray cat, D2, that we recently had neutered with the help of a cat foundation that helps people in financial need to spay and neuter cats. I've posted on this forum about how upset I am that my husband is against my bringing D2 into the house on account of our two inside cats probably not getting along with him. So now I think I might have come up with a somewhat alternative plan.
Our house is very old and has several buildings on the property including an old building that we call "the shanty" where we keep tools and odds and ends. It's only a few feet away from our house. We keep the door shut all of the time except sometimes during the day in nice weather when we might be outside working in the lawn or garden and using something from the shanty. I thought maybe I could use this building as a "home" for D2 since he can't come into the house.
My husband and I aren't young and I'm not even sure that we'd be physically able to put a cat door on the shanty to enable D2 to get inside the building. Also, I haven't looked into them because I'm not sure if this is a do-able option for us (they probably aren't cheap). If I would put a cat door on the door (not in great shape but usable) of the shanty, it would have to allow D2 to go in on his own and come back out on his own BUT not allow any other cats (especially the neighborhood cat that fights with him) access to the building. I suppose that I could go the simpler route and just get a regular cat door that's not "electronic", but then I'd wonder how many critters would have access to that building (including the cat that fights with D2, unless you don't think that it would follow him in there or even take up residence there itself).
I thought by giving D2 access to the shanty, maybe he'd be smart enough to go in there in the winter, especially when it's so cold and snowy outside, and I hopefully wouldn't have to worry about him trudging over through the woods that's next to us. I can't help but wonder if any people around here would shoot a cat (not all of our neighbors are nice) and I guess I'm trying to make this place seem more attractive to him so he hopefully stays closer to our place most of the time. Also, it can get pretty cold and snowy here in PA and I worry about D2 being out there in the elements.
I don't think my husband would go along with the idea of having a microchip implanted in D2 (financially and also he doesn't really consider him "our" cat), so I guess I'd have to opt for the door and a "chip" on a cat collar to communicate with the cat door to let it come open for D2. One drawback to this option is that I'm not sure if D2 would tolerate having a collar on him, and another drawback is that he might get stuck on something somewhere and be hung by the collar. Of course, they make break-away collars, but then I guess the "chip" (or whatever you call it that communicates with the cat door) would get lost outside somewhere, probably never to be found. So then what would a person have to do in that case, buy a whole new cat door to put on our building door which would come with another "communicator"? Or what? We wouldn't be able to keep doing that.
I'm open to any suggestions anyone might have and also advice about this door thing. I hope I didn't post this in an inappropriate place, but I'm not real familiar with the site.
Our house is very old and has several buildings on the property including an old building that we call "the shanty" where we keep tools and odds and ends. It's only a few feet away from our house. We keep the door shut all of the time except sometimes during the day in nice weather when we might be outside working in the lawn or garden and using something from the shanty. I thought maybe I could use this building as a "home" for D2 since he can't come into the house.
My husband and I aren't young and I'm not even sure that we'd be physically able to put a cat door on the shanty to enable D2 to get inside the building. Also, I haven't looked into them because I'm not sure if this is a do-able option for us (they probably aren't cheap). If I would put a cat door on the door (not in great shape but usable) of the shanty, it would have to allow D2 to go in on his own and come back out on his own BUT not allow any other cats (especially the neighborhood cat that fights with him) access to the building. I suppose that I could go the simpler route and just get a regular cat door that's not "electronic", but then I'd wonder how many critters would have access to that building (including the cat that fights with D2, unless you don't think that it would follow him in there or even take up residence there itself).
I thought by giving D2 access to the shanty, maybe he'd be smart enough to go in there in the winter, especially when it's so cold and snowy outside, and I hopefully wouldn't have to worry about him trudging over through the woods that's next to us. I can't help but wonder if any people around here would shoot a cat (not all of our neighbors are nice) and I guess I'm trying to make this place seem more attractive to him so he hopefully stays closer to our place most of the time. Also, it can get pretty cold and snowy here in PA and I worry about D2 being out there in the elements.
I don't think my husband would go along with the idea of having a microchip implanted in D2 (financially and also he doesn't really consider him "our" cat), so I guess I'd have to opt for the door and a "chip" on a cat collar to communicate with the cat door to let it come open for D2. One drawback to this option is that I'm not sure if D2 would tolerate having a collar on him, and another drawback is that he might get stuck on something somewhere and be hung by the collar. Of course, they make break-away collars, but then I guess the "chip" (or whatever you call it that communicates with the cat door) would get lost outside somewhere, probably never to be found. So then what would a person have to do in that case, buy a whole new cat door to put on our building door which would come with another "communicator"? Or what? We wouldn't be able to keep doing that.
I'm open to any suggestions anyone might have and also advice about this door thing. I hope I didn't post this in an inappropriate place, but I'm not real familiar with the site.