Well, crud....

[kyrielle]

So far, it doesn't sound like I've got great options on controlling the cats. I really can't put a second door where I need this blockade. They are both used to going out doors and sometimes run for it (Babe especially). So far we've managed to not let them out at my parents' house, but we've started dodging through the back porch, which they don't think of as leading "out". When we bring them over here, they'll be shut in one room (probably the master bedroom). But once we release them to the rest of the house, we'll need something between them and the front door so that anyone coming in has a minute to deal with the door before they have to deal with the cats, and anyone going out has the reverse.

Basta can't jump very high (bed height, chair height is just doable), so a tall one would probably solve her. I don't think Babe can either, but she might be able to and just be a general klutz - and I hate to think about her hurting herself, trying.

Actual construction to modify the entryway would, obviously, take far too long. It's also not real feasible in the space there...and oh, I hate to think of the howls if we modified the exterior part!

I suppose we could consistently enter through the garage - if we made sure the door was closed, the worst they could do was get out there - but that will make it hard on visitors, deliverymen, etc., especially as the garage is a trashed mess. Plus, since the garage is a trashed mess, tracking the cats down out there would be hard.

Argh!

Comments

[kayre]

you don't need to sit and watch, just go rushing out noisily when you hear a cat hit the barrier.

[kyrielle]

Yeah, but. The area we need to block is right by the front door. The most commonly-occupied areas are both upstairs, THE most commonly-occupied one at the far end of the hall from the stairs. The odds are very good that we wouldn't know.

And the most important time for it to work would be when we're not home, so that when we get home, there are no escapes....