james_davis_nicoll | (no subject)

(no subject)

On my way home I temporarily befriended a cat, whose adoration for me ended abruptly when it ran to the front door of its home, looked at the doorknob, looked at me, and I then refrained from opening the door for it, on the grounds I don't know the owners.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have had to tell numerous cats that I do not actually have the keys.

That is entirely fair, although I expect that it annoys such cats as you encountered.

When Moe the Big Doggie Who Lives Two Doors Down wanted to get into his house, another neighbour knocked on the door and walked away. One of Moe's owners opened the door, and Moe ran inside. I heard her ask Moe, "How did you do that?"

I have once knocked on the door for a cat I didn't know, at a house I didn't know, which did not have a cat, nor want one. They weren't pleased.

I am not a P. G. Wodehouse character, by the way.

Robert Carnegie

I did that once in the stairwell my sisters former apartment. The owner (wet, in a bathrobe) was a little tired of the cat shanghaiing strangers to open the front door and then to ring the bell when they had cat stairs running to their second floor balcony.

Unless you know how to build cat stairs that aren't also rat stairs, it's a bad idea.

It could involve a section with a gap too large for a rat to jump but manageable by a cat, with any walls too slippery for a rat to climb. And no way to get to the upper part by climbing around the gap, dropping from above (e.g. a tree), etc. It would probably also defeat raccoons, who aren't noted for leaping, and probably skunks. Squirrels have about the same limitations as rats, I think.

This is a cleverness arms race that I think should not happen.

Squirrels have about the same limitations as rats, I think.

Please do a web video search for "squirrel obstacle course".

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