Cat flap

[Sarah543uk]

We’re looking to adopt a rescue cat, keen for one that can be indoors and outside. My husband is concerned about how much a cat will wake us during the night and in the morning (like our last cat!) so I wanted to install a cat flap but it’s around £200+ to put one in a glass door. Where have other people put them?! Thinking a hole in the wall in the kitchen could work for our new addition?

Thanks x

[papa cat]

Unless it is through a door (or similar) cat flaps are almost always expensive to fit and need major work.
Perhaps wait and see if the new cat pesters you during the night and in the morning before you consider installing a cat flap.

[Mollycat]

I've had roaming cats my whole life and never a cat flap. Well I tell a lie, I tried one, once, which my cat never used but all the other cats did and stressed mine out so much I had to give up and block it up permanently.

Also had a friend who had a cat and a cat flap and was woken up by George yowling to wake the neighbourhood at 5am daily because he used the flap to go out and then couldn't figure it out to come back in.

There's also no guarantee you won't be woken up all night for other things, like play, breakfast, the simple joy of purring on your head, or no reason whatsoever that you can figure out. Molly gets me up even if OH has fed her. His dog gets him up even if I have taken him out. Sometimes they just want us to be up and, most infuriating of all, often once we are they go back to bed!

With an adult rescue at least you have the chance to say you would like a chilled out lazy cat who is less likely to be screaming in your ears at unsociable times.

[fjm]

I have a flap replacing a small window in the hall - it is set into a wooden panel, avoiding the need to fit it into glass, and making it easy to reglaze the window in due course. Added advantage of being out of reach of my very small dogs, so no danger of them disappearing through it! It worked well for many years until Pip got too arthritic to manage the jump, and I now have boxes arranged as steps inside and a ramp outside. Before that I just left the even smaller upper window in the hall open and the cats happily jumped in and out through that.