Feline Doorknob Dilemma

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| Print | By | December 26, 2008 12:09 PM

Cats are known for their high intelligence and ability to frustrate even the most devoted felinophile. This little story illustrates my hypothesis.

I feed our two cats separately. This way I know how much food they are actually consuming and I can keep a finger on the pulse of their caloric intake. During meal times, I generally keep Hubble, our white Oriental Shorthair company while enjoys his food and he seems to eat all of his meal if I hang out with him. I feed him in the guest bathroom, and I feed our other cat, Hush Puppy in the hallway outside the door.

Of course, the door to the bathroom is shut during feeding times, which sometimes presents a problem for Hush Puppy, our lilac point Oriental. However, a closed door in our house presents few problems to this ingenious kitty who has an extremely high feline I.Q. and takes closed doors on as a challenge.
26-Hush Puppy.jpg.jpg

This morning, Hubble and I were having a deep and meaningful conversation about the state of the world, while he busily devoured his bowl of Venison and Peas. All was peaceful and quiet until Hush Puppy thrust himself upon the bathroom push-down handle doorknob, in order to gain access to the bathroom to answer an urgent nature call. The door flew open and he immediately jumped into the litter box with a look of relief on his face. How dare I shut him out! I tell you those push-down handles make privacy an impossibility.

But this is only one example that demonstrates Hush Puppy's obsession with doors and doorknobs. One of his greatest delights is to defeat bi-fold doors. They are an open invitation, actually, which titillates his feline wiles. In fact we were forced to hire a handy man to customize the bi-fold mirrored closet door in our bedroom to render it cat-proof. I wish you could have seen the frustrated look he gave me after a couple of attempts to open the door, without success. There is nothing sadder appearing than a cat whose mission has been thwarted.

Not willing to give up his hobby, shortly after a thorough exploration around our house, he found bigger fish to fry! I am beginning to think that purrhaps he was a doorman in a prior lifetime. One never knows. There has to be an underlying motivation, right?

The door to our kitchen pantry is a wooden bi-fold. For years Hush Puppy has ignored it, but since access to the bedroom mirrored bi-fold has been banned, he has become obsessed with the kitchen door. The thudding sound when the door opens echoes throughout the house and can even be heard while I am working in my office. This cat is totally preoccupied now to get into the pantry, even though nothing feline related is stored in it, exemplifying the adage; the joy is in the journey, not the destination.

Is my dilemma unique? Do your cats open doors? Any suggestions to cat-proof our kitchen? Please help me out here, by leaving a comment with suggestions.

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Vicki December 27, 2008 11:45 AM

I have a black lab that opens doors. We had the push handles on all of our doors, but due to the fact that Scarlett was always opening them, I had to change four of them to the round kind. The back door still has the push kind, and when she wants to go out, she just opens the door and goes out.

Skylark December 27, 2008 11:48 AM

My blue dsh hasn't learned to actually OPEN doors, but he continues to go into the hall bathroom, close the door on himself, and then scratch, scratch, scratch until someone gets up to let him out. Then he just saunters out as if to say, "I wanted to make sure you guys were okay."

Skylark

~Samantha Crockett~ December 27, 2008 11:51 AM

Oh this is just TOO funny! LOL! Aren't cats a trip? They ARE EXTREMELY intelligent and so very creative. My Georgette is also nuts about doors, especially cabinet doors in the kitchen :) Many a day has gone by that I have gone in there and found them all open!!! ROFL!

Thanks for sharing this :)

Joanne December 27, 2008 2:09 PM

That is so funny. Magnus is obsessed with the basement door which is a pocket door. His one front leg is so strong that if you lesve it open even a crack he can shove with all his might and open it. The furnace keeps the basement extra toasty and I think that's the appeal

Amy December 27, 2008 4:07 PM

Hum sounds like you have a really smart cat on your hands. A simple solution would be to put a small hook and eye on the door where possibly Hush Puppy would not be able to reach it. But then again Hush Puppy is probably smart enough to figure out a way to reach it. Cats are so darn smart.

Donna December 27, 2008 4:25 PM

The only time any doors are closed here is if I'm giving Pirate some extra wet food (he's thin at 15) or if I'm in the shower. Wheezel usually accompanies me to the shower, it's good for her asthma. The rest of the cats have NO interest in being in there with the water running so hard. Of course if it's not shower time, Mouse, Missy and Chester and Wheezel are INSISTING the bath tub be turned on slightly for their drinky, in spite of having a fountain for their water in the kitchen! LOL Mine are pretty ingenious, but the most brilliant one, Clifton, as you know is at Rainbow Bridge.

Now, if you want to talk about cats turning on lights when it is time for you to get up, that's another story for another Mousey day.

hehe

J.A. Morrison December 27, 2008 7:45 PM

Opening doors used to be a kind of game here when our Dustbunny was still around. She opened all manor of doors including the refrigerator. Finally, when we replaced the Frig, that stopped. The new Frig door was too strong to open. Sighs of relief at that point but if something had a handle Dustbunny was on the job. Worst of all was when she learned to flush the commode. We thought we lived in Niagara Falls until we finally duct taped the handle. LOL What wonderufl memories of our angle. Thanks.

Rani December 27, 2008 8:12 PM

In order to understand this, you need a map! My master bedroom faces West, with a big window. The East side of the room has a large vanity with a large mirror. If you broke down the mirror and the wall behind it, you would be in our back yard.

Rao sits by the sink, gazing wistfully across the room in the mirror, wanting to get OUT the window at the other side of the reflection. He is convinced that it is a secret way to get out and into the back yard. There is a walk-in closet next to the mirror, and both of our cats want to get in there because it's just got to be a secret exit.

It does not work, for some reason.

Rani

Valerie Kay December 29, 2008 9:31 AM

Our little girl Bengal can open the pull-down handle on a door. We switched it our to a locking door knob and were able to keep the same type of handle.

What worries me is that she sits at the front door on the old sewing machine, which is at the same level as the door knob, and tries to open it. Fortunately, the doorknob is not a pull down and she cannot actually get it to turn - she only bats at it. She is very smart.

Two of our other cats can open a sliding door to the bathroom, and even though I love them much, sometimes being in the bathroom is not the time for attention. I put things near the doors that they like to open to distract them like an attractive, dangling toy. I also just block the doors like with a doorstop. Now if only I could just the Bengal from pushing things off a counter with her little paw like a full glass of water and ice.

Good luck.

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