I’ve mentioned before that BMHusband shares some cool qualities with Q, the James Bond character. Namely, he tends to solve problems by inventing things. Where you and I might hang a bell on a door so that when the cats try to get in, the bell would rattle, BMHusband looks at the door and sees wires, lasers, lights and…a fancy, hi-tech doorbell. Which is what has now been invented and installed!!!

This is your basic…well, okay, NOT so basic garage door opener style device. When the cat crosses the beam on his way to the door, a chime sounds on the wireless (yes wireless–why would we even consider a boring old wired speaker???) speaker in the bedroom. “Ding!!! Junior is home!” Well, it doesn’t really say “Junior is home,” it just chimes. And we can then investigate to make sure it is, in fact, Junior or Scamp and open the door. When it is one of the invader cats, we tell it to go home (the neighbor cat is still trying to convince us to let it move in.)

“Our” cats took less than a day to figure out that they don’t even have to tap on the cat door anymore. They simply sit in front of the door and wait. Magically the humans appear and let them in!!! Junior was convinced that he could now send us mind-messages. He was so pleased! Except we still don’t give him treat every time he sits at our feet in the kitchen. And this morning when he hopped on the bed and began “the stare” we did not immediately shower him with food, let him out or otherwise give in to “the stare.” But when he wants in on a rainy morning, we hear about it.