Adding a back door to the cat feeder

As mentioned in previous Caturday posts, I wanted to add a back door to the feeder area of the cat house, to enable a cat to escape if trapped inside by another cat (let’s be honest, Pumpkin) or wildlife.

After considering various options, I decided that the best place for a door would be on the side, next to the access door. A big advantage with this location is that usage of the door would be visible from both the outside cam and the feeder cam.

Today the weather was clear enough (albeit very cold) for me to do this.

Here’s the side of the cat house, prior to installation:

A view from the feeder cam of me cutting a rough hole in the wall with my jigsaw:

This rough hole let me confirm the position and such:

I then made the hole larger, based on the cat door template, and tried fitting the door insert (a little tight here):

I paused for lunch, and a cat investigated my handiwork:

Me screwing the door insert into wood blocks above and below it:

Horizontal boards above and below the insert give it something to mount onto.  I also (rather messily) removed portions of the batten boards:

The outside portion of the door installed:

Inside; you can see the mounting boards:

Outside with screw caps:

I touched up the paint above and below the door:

Finished:

Now that I’m done, I kinda wish I had gotten a white door, instead of brown. I got brown to match the other two cat doors (front and back of the shelter portion), but those are on red walls, so brown works better; white would have worked better here. Oh well; I’m sure I won’t notice after a while, and I could replace it if it really bothers me.

Finally, a cat peeking out:

Merry Christmas cats! 🎄