Banished! #Caturday for #ThursdayDoors

Tipper has lost his good reputation around here. Tipper, in case you don’t know, is our new (to us) cat, who just turned one. Here’s his picture.

Aww, innee adorsaboo?

Well, here’s the story — and it does have doors in it.

Our house was built for a couple and four girls, and Charlie and his pals built it. It’s purty big. Not a McMansion, but of a goodly size in two levels. Then the kids — as kids are wont to do — grew up and moved out, and Charlie took one of the bedrooms for his office.

So Charlie decided we’d block off the stairs going up and he hung some old aluminum folding doors he found on a junk heap sommers. It works just fine. Trouble is, it didn’t keep Tipper out. He figured out how to mess with the door until he could jimmy it open with a paw and muscle through the crack.

A door! At last!

When he wanted to come down, he’d just muscle it open from the inside.

Then Charlie discovered that Tipper had not invariably succeeded in opening the door when he wanted to. Two of the upstairs beds had been commandeered as makeshift litterboxes. Not one, but two. Because, one assumes, using the same would twice would just be nasty.

So I spent a day washing and drying sheets and quilts and Charlie spent the day installing a makeshift latch on the inside of the doors, so whoever is upstairs can secure it against Tipper.

Hardware and wooden latch.

When we’re both downstairs, we use this handy dowel rod.

Tipper is very melancholy, but not as melancholy as we were, when we found those beds.

This has been (just barely) part of Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors link-up. Follow the link to Norm’s post, scroll down to the blue frog button, and click it to find some real door pictures, and maybe a little history, too.

I’m being hosted today at Buried Under Books, where I’m talking about Using People For Fun And Profit. [UPDATE: Duh. MAY 23, not March 23. ~sigh~ A mind is a terrible thing to … something. But it’s a rockin’ site, so go there, anyway!]

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write about a makeshift lock

MA

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About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “Banished! #Caturday for #ThursdayDoors

  1. Dan Antion

    March 23, 2017 at 7:14am

    Tipper seems like quite the creative little kitty. In his defense, he probably got scared (sorry Tip, that’s the best I can do for ya). Our little cat would get that dowel rod out in a heartbeat. And, she would position is at the top of the stairs, so be careful.

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      March 23, 2017 at 12:59pm

      Tipper’s a problem-solver, all right. I’m surprised he hasn’t figured out the dowel rod, even though it’s high above his head. Your kitty sounds like a super-villain! Cool!

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  2. Joey

    March 23, 2017 at 12:05pm

    Oh dang. I hope this solves the problem. Cute doors 🙂 Adorable naughty beast 🙂

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      March 23, 2017 at 1:00pm

      I hope so, too, Joey! I don’t like it when my boys are mad at each other. 🙂

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  3. A.C.Flory

    March 23, 2017 at 5:51pm

    Commiserations. 🙁 Mogi, my chihuahua has a love hate relationship with my rugs too. 🙁

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  4. Norm 2.0

    March 25, 2017 at 10:11am

    Like the dowel rod solution. Hopefully this puts an end to the freestyle litter box choices 🙂
    BTW I added the post to the link-up list for you.

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      March 25, 2017 at 1:14pm

      I hope so, too! Thanks for adding my link. I didn’t put it up because it wasn’t a proper doorposting. 🙂

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply

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