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These days I only have one cat. Her name is Maybe and she’s a heavy little chunk that I’m certain only likes me 50% of the time :) I might not see her for an entire day only to wake up with a weight on my chest in my pitch black bedroom. Sometimes it seems like she wants to lovingly touch my face, but she does have claws. And other times she just straight up bites me. And I can only hope it isn’t on my face :) I’ve been told both are signs of love and that she’s letting me know that I’m her person. Dang, what a way to show it!
The whole time I’ve ever had cats there has been one huge drawback…
and that’s the litterbox. Since I have only one cat these days and because I work from home I can easily have only a single litterbox. Which is great because my house isn’t huge. When I first moved in it was in a corner in the guest room. With COVID I didn’t have guests for the first year-plus of living here so it wasn’t a big deal. But then my nephews came for the summer and who wants to sleep in a room with a litterbox?
I wound up cutting a hole in the wall between my laundry room and attached garage and putting a cat door in. Then I made an enclosure out of wood that looks sort of like a crate and has a removable door that can be accessed through that cat door. It didn’t take long before Maybe figured out where the box was and not only did she go out to use it, if I was working in the garage with the door open, she’d hang out with me by sitting next to her litter box.
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So the box has been moved, the cat knows where it is, and, best of all, she has no problems using it. I had planned on just propping the laundry room door open so she could go right into the laundry room to pass through her cat door. Unfortunately that didn’t work out. I would forget and close the door entirely or the door would swing open and block the cat door. This started a series of unfortunate pooping events that stressed both the cat and myself out.
I was totally not digging the idea of putting a cat door in my laundry room door which is in the foyer right by the front door.
But then I straight up found the cutest cat door ever. SERIOUSLY LIKE EVER. And so, back in November I ordered and installed my door and I can’t even tell you how easy it was. Or how cute this door really is in real life. And, as it turns out, it’s really darn functional. The little doorknob isn’t just for looks, it’s also functional. With a turn of the knob you can close the adorable little windowed door and lock it into place.
Now I did worry that tons of cat fun wouldn’t fit through the small door, but she does get through with out a problem. In fact, so does my Boston Terrier Shih Tzu mix who, when left at home alone in her crate when I took Ollie in for surgery, bent the crate door, escaped, fit through the cutest cat door ever, tore the cat door out of the wall and was sitting in the middle of the garage when I opened the door. So, if you’re worrying about a bigger cat fitting, you probably don’t need to. You do need to worry about small to medium-sized dogs getting through, though.
Want to see how easy it is to put this door in?
Tools You Will Need for Installation:
- The Cutest Cat Door Ever
- Permanent Marker
- Power Drill
- Jig Saw
- Blade Screwdriver
- Hammer
How to Install the Cutest Cat Door Ever
To begin installation you will need to remove the door and place it on an elevated flat surface. I used my kitchen island bench but you can also use a workbench, sawhorses, or another tabletop. *Quick Tip – the directions recommend to mark the front of back of the door to keep from getting confused during installation. This seemed silly to me but I went ahead and marked one side. And then when I was working I got all confused and was really glad I had a little permanent marker B on the backside :)
To remove the door from it’s frame pull the pins out of the hinges. Be mindful of your clothing and surfaces… hinges are sometimes greasy. Make sure you’ve got a hold on the door because once it’s unpinned it might start to fall over! If you have a hard time removing the pins by hand you’ll need to loosen them. Use a hammer and something that will fit within the hinge cylinders to tap the pin up and out.
Cutting Out the Arch Shape for Installation
Cut out the arched door pattern from the door’s directions. Measure your door and mark the center right from the bottom. Mark the center just above where the arch of the pattern sits. Align the marks you just made with the centerline from the pattern then trace the pattern onto the door.
Check on the placement of your door and make sure that you won’t be drilling into or cutting the worktop beneath the door. Seems silly but crud happens :)
Drill several holes inside the marked arch. Take care to hold the drill nice and straight so that your holes on the backside stay within the arch’s shape.
Cut the arch shape out with a jigsaw, again holding the tool straight so as to cut within the arch’s shape for both sides of the door.
If your door is hollow, like mine is it’s a good idea to add supports inside of the door. Since it won’t be seen, scrap wood works really well for this. Just make sure that your pieces aren’t fatter than the space inside of the door. If the wood is too big it will make the door bubble outward. Cut down to size or, if there’s just a little bit too much, you can sand it down with a power sander.
Once your pieces are the correct size, slip into the door and glue into place. Allow some time for the glue to dry before continuing.
With your hole cut it’s time to add the cutest cat door ever!
Using the screws that came with the door, first screw the backside arch to the backside of your door. Flip the door over and screw your front (with the actually itty bitty adorable door) into place on the front side.
Now the little cat door actually opens and closes. How cute is that? To keep it open when it needs to stay that way, there is a little door knob holder.
I was worried about getting the placement of this piece right. Here’s what I did: Pop the holder onto the doorknob and then place a small dot of wet paint onto the back where it will connect with your human-sized. Open the little cat door and push it flush against the big door. Pop the knob holder off and you should have a spot of paint right where you need to screw the holder into place.
Tah Dah!
With the CUTEST cat door ever in place, it’s time to put the door back up. Slide the door hinges together and pop the pins back in. When I put a door back up it never wants to stay in place. I make sure I’m in my bare feet (so I can feel what I’m doing) and then I sort of wedge one foot under the door and help prop it up and hold it in place. I’m basically a hillbilly so it was inevitable I’d figure this little door installation hack eventually :)
