I got a call from Nancy this morning, telling about what my bad kitties
have up to. Whenever they're bad, they're my kitties. When they're good
they're our kitties.

We've got a cat flap in the back door to let the furkids in/out when the
weather is too hot or too cold to leave the door standing open. It's one
of those with a hard plastic flap and a little locking mechanism that
allows it to open in only, open out only, open both ways, or not open at
all. After we installed it we found that the kitties were able to
manipulate the control knob - no small feat for a creature without
opposable thumbs!

Nancy then rigged a hard piece of plastic that can be velcroed over the
inside portion of the flap, including the control knob. The kitties soon
figured out how to rip off the plastic shield as well.

We then started parking an 18 pound tub of kitty litter in front of the
flap when we had the cats all in the house and didn't want them going
out. That has worked well - until this morning.

It seems that someone managed to push the bucket of litter far enough
out of the way to allow them to remove theplastic shield, turn the knob
to the "open" position, and go outside. When Nancy got up this morning
the bed was curiously devoid of kitties, and she heard a plaintive
meowing coming from the kitchen. Amelia had tried to join Sammy and
Tabitha in their early morning romp, but the space between the litter
bucket and the flap was too small for Amelia's "gravitationally gifted"
body to squeeze through. The kitty culprits also didn't think very
clearly about the end of their escaped, either. The litter bucket, while
moved enough to allow the kittens to squueze through, was still in such
a place that it wouldn't allow the flap to move back inwards. The two
kittens had essentially locked themselves into the back yard! When Nancy
opened the back door they both dashed gratefully into the house. I doubt
they were out there too long - they both usually sleep until 4:00 AM or
so - but they were no doubt quite thrilled with their great adventure.

Dan