For those of you who live in mixed households, you know what a challenge a litter box can be. Dogs just LOVE litter box treats. When my daughter moved back home with her little Lucky, the 3 legged cat, I had four dogs sharing my living space, cats lived in the barn. We had to find a place to put Lucky’s litter box that the dogs couldn’t get to. My solution was to put a chain on the small bathroom door that is in the laundry room. That worked great for awhile… Lucky was a very small cat and the dogs couldn’t squeeze through the small opening. Then Lucky died unexpectedly and we were all very upset. Earlier that year  I had agreed to adopt a cat from a no kill shelter if a Manx came in. It was fate that one came in at that time! I brought home a full grown male tuxedo that we named Pancho. He was a big boy.

It didn’t take long to figure out the door chain had to be adjusted to accommodate his size. Then it didn’t take long for the dogs to figure out they could squeeze into the door and raid the cat food and the litter box. It was back to square one. I tried several solutions to no avail. It wouldn’t take the dogs long to find a way into what was being called the cat room by now. I thought of a pet door, but if it was large enough for Pancho, it was also large enough for the cocker spaniels. Over the holiday I bought a baby gate. It sort of worked but again it didn’t take the dogs long to learn that they could push on it till they knocked it down.  I found a couple of L brackets in the garage that would fit in the doorway with the gate and alas I think I finally have a solution. It’s the combination of the gate, L brackets, and chain!  The chain keeps the door from opening very much, the gate blocks direct access, and the brackets keep the gate in place. The dogs are very inventive, so we’ll see how long this last, but for now peace reigns in the cat room.