To block the flap or not to block, that is the question.
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 12:51 pm
So you know how it is, you read one book on cat psychology and you start to worry.
Minnie-Moobles likes to wake me up during the night for cuddles. I worried that this might be a stressy thing, related to the fact that the local cats like to come in and help themselves to her food and lounge on her sofa and stuff. Beyond a hiss, she doesn’t do much and it’s up to Security (me) to get rid of the interloper.
She had stopped going out to go to the loo and had taken to using the litter tray, which I’d left down for those days when it’s hissing down. I wouldn’t want to go outside for a wee when it’s chucking it down. She didn’t seem to be going out much in the garden either, but then I’m out all day, so what do I know?
Anyway, I ummed and aaaahed and considered blocking off her flap, so that her territory is her territory and I would have a happy cat who lets me sleep through.
But something has happened.
Now Madam likes to go out – she dives through her flap with all the grace of Tom Daley. She pootles in and out at will. The other night I’d left her in the living room, by the time I’d got the recycling sorted, she was on the window ledge outside. Someone has won a punch-up somewhere and it’s her territory now.
So, I’d better rethink blocking her flap and she’ll wake me up whenever she feels like it.
Minnie-Moobles likes to wake me up during the night for cuddles. I worried that this might be a stressy thing, related to the fact that the local cats like to come in and help themselves to her food and lounge on her sofa and stuff. Beyond a hiss, she doesn’t do much and it’s up to Security (me) to get rid of the interloper.
She had stopped going out to go to the loo and had taken to using the litter tray, which I’d left down for those days when it’s hissing down. I wouldn’t want to go outside for a wee when it’s chucking it down. She didn’t seem to be going out much in the garden either, but then I’m out all day, so what do I know?
Anyway, I ummed and aaaahed and considered blocking off her flap, so that her territory is her territory and I would have a happy cat who lets me sleep through.
But something has happened.
Now Madam likes to go out – she dives through her flap with all the grace of Tom Daley. She pootles in and out at will. The other night I’d left her in the living room, by the time I’d got the recycling sorted, she was on the window ledge outside. Someone has won a punch-up somewhere and it’s her territory now.
So, I’d better rethink blocking her flap and she’ll wake me up whenever she feels like it.