Like, cat-whisker-sized ajar? We’re trying to figure out how best to use the space in our living and dining rooms (I’m about to post a thread asking for advice) and my, wouldn’t it be nice not to have a litter box in the dining room? Perhaps people would even eat in there if we did that!
The thing is, we need to be able to separate our animals sometimes (every night at dinner, for example - the dog will eat the cats’ food if he can, but the cats won’t eat his food) and if we only have litter boxes in our laundry room, the best place to separate animals, then if the dog is back there then the cats won’t have anywhere to pee and may try thinking outside the box. We have to do it every night and sometimes when, say, we’re expecting the pizza guy or a delivery or something.
So I had two ideas - one, we could just close him off with a baby gate which the cats could climb if they wanted to. Seems like a bit of a pain in the ass and I don’t know if they’d actually climb it, but it’s a possibility. I also had the idea, though, that we could just keep the dog back there with a door that’s ajar just enough for cats to go through but not for the dog. (I pictured something like the security bars on the inside of hotel room doors except in reverse?) Does such a thing exist? Does anybody have experience with them?
A doorstop seems like the simplest solution. I’ve had both the kind that’s a sort of figurine with a triangular profile and others which got stuck to the floor and which could be rotated to lock the door or release it in place. It’s a matter of stopping the door at the desired width, which in this case happens to be “cat’s whisker width”.
ETA: some of those doorstops are heavy enough that it would take a mastiff to push one out of place, no way the cats or a medium-sized dog will do it. How big is your dog?
Huge but stupid. He can’t figure out how to open a door that’s ajar. Seriously, even if he’d just have to push it with his nose. The cats will open and close doors sometimes though.
We got a “baby gate” (marketed as a pet gate) that has a cat-sized door in it. The gate is also easy to open and latches securely if it’s a door that you go in and out of a lot. I don’t know if I’d go for the doorstop option if it’s a high-traffic area, as it would annoy me to put it back every time I went through the door.
We also need to be able to put the dog up sometimes (some people are afraid of dogs, the delivery guy doesn’t appreciate Mr. Sniffy, etc.) without having to round up all three cats to throw them in the same room to make sure everybody has a box.
use a hook and eye device; like the kind that is used on screen doors. you would make your own with two screw eyes and fabricate a hook from coat hanger wire or stiff copper wire. mount the eyes on the door surface and door jam, make the hook the stand open distance.
if you can’t screw into wood then use screw in then use removable adhesive hooks; the adhesive releases when the plastic backing is stretched. instead of a hook you would make loops on each end.
Healthy cats with a clean litterbox really don’t *like *to think outside the box. They also have voluntary bowel/bladder control like humans, not involuntary like birds. They will hold it as long as they can, so unless you’re shutting them out for many hours at a time, I think you’re overthinking it.
We’ve been using baby-gates with great effect. But our dog isn’t quite big enough to just walk or jump over it; not sure if yours is or not. The cats WILL go over; unless yours are very old and arthritic, they’ll figure it out immediately. It’s a pain to step over them all the time, but they’re easily removeable, and it also lets you ‘gate’ off different areas of your house, say, if you want to confine the dog to linoleum-only areas when you’re at work or something.
This problem has been solved in many ways on Ikeahackers.net. The idea is to take a big chest or a small cabinet, and make it into a litterbox holder OR feeding station. (cats, like humans, don’t like to pee, eat and drink too close together. So don’t make the mistake to put all things “cat” too close together. Better a separate litter staion and eating station in different rooms, and a drinking glass or vase next to the sink so you can change the water once a day whnever you notice it while you run the tap). Then make an access hole (with or without cat flap) in the chest that is big enough for the cat, but not for the dog.
I use babygates, mounted a little high (like 6 inches off the ground.) Cats go under, doggy can’t. (This in no way blocks the housemate’s Yorkie, but he’s only an occassional nuisance.)
We put cat food up high where the dog can’t get it. Then we use a baby gate that’s placed high enough for the cats to go under, but not the dog. It helps that our dog is a huge 100lb beast though. I guess it wouldn’t work for a small dog.
We have a tall cat tree (5 ft) and the cats get fed up there. We also use a baby gate to keep the dogs (two large pit bulls) in one part of the house when people are over who aren’t keen on dogs, or we lock them in the garage. Our cats have no problem jumping over the gates to get where they want. The dogs have never tried to jump over and while, I imagine if they tried, they could knock the gate down (it’s a tension gate), I don’t think they’ve tried.
When I had an elderly cat that couldn’t jump up on the counter anymore, I got a smallish (in height, some of them are really tall) baby gate with the plastic mesh, not the rigid molded kind. I cut out a cat sized hole in the corner, installed in the door of the least-used bathroom, and and Voila! Easy access to cats, no access to greedy dogs, reasonable access for long legged humans.
I’ve also done the hook and eye route, it works pretty well so long as that’s not a door you have to use a lot, or go through with encumbered hands.
Bricks work too, one on each side of the door. Well, they work unless you have a smart and dedicated chow-hound dog who figures out how to use his schnoz to push the door and the brick aside…
