32 Comments on “This Will Be Familiar to Cat Owners”

1. Here’s another animation by the same artist, “Wake Up Cat”:

2. The concepts (except for hanging from the screen door) are not unfamiliar to we dog devotees either, with the following exception: The punch line would have been the dog immediately wanting to go outside again.

3. Hahaha, the standing at the door after it was opened was the best part. I have to walk outside and pick them up half the time to get them in doors.

4. Our cats our stricktly indoors, but… we kept our younger cat in the bathroom for about four days when he was a kitten so the two older cats could get used to him. We’d spend a lot of time there with him so he wouldn’t get to lonely.

   Six years later, the bathroom is still the place of love. He’s no longer the 10oz malnourished little guy, he’s a 20 pound monster who body checks the door if I close it. Which is also why when we have guests I have to use the upstairs bathroom, lest they get more than they bargained for.

5. My dog did that, too. When you opened the door to let him in, he’d just sit there, staring at you (unless it was -30C in the middle of winter, then he was in faster than you could blink).

   Then again, he also would case after invisible toys/animals/whatever and run head first into walls. He wasn’t the brightest dog, but he was our stupidBailey.

6. Excuse me, I have to let the cat in.

7. Way funny!
   In my case it is that x 2.

8. That was cool. The wake up and feed me cartoon was really funny.

9. God, if that isn’t the gospel truth right there.

10. Yep, I expected the cat wanting to go out again too. This is me at 4am and 5am just about every day.

    I solved the problem with my cats and screens with a paste made from ground up habenero peppers. The don’t come near the screens now. But I can’t figure out how to keep the cat from sitting on my chest and whining to be let out.

11. Joel at 2 is right. My cat does that. LET ME IN, followed by why you standing there with the door open? I leave two windows open without screens (guess what happened to the screens?) and she still wants me to let her out the door. I think these would be funnier of the cat didn’t turn violent.

12. My cat sometimes opens the door himself which is pretty damn annoying because only way to keep him outside (or inside) is to lock them. Of course, he sits there and waits for someone to open them only when he isn’t sure where he wants to be so when some naive fool actually opens the door for him he spends five minutes runing in and out… especialy if it’s bellow zero outside so whole house gets cold…. damn, cats are so awesome :-)

13. I feel that guys pain.

14. The other cat wanted the door opened but she didn’t want to come inside.

15. My cats do that in shifts, let one in/let the other out, switch ’em back an hour later, repeat until they get bored/hungry.

    Evening/morning comes with both in the house and winding each other up and you have to pick em up and toss ’em before they tear the place/desk/sanity apart.

    Which restarts the process.

    Going to work is like a vacation XD

16. Ah yes. Very familiar. I live in a one room cabin with six feline roommates and semi-solved the perpetual doorman problem by installing a window-fitted cat door. It’s insulated and the flap is magnetized, so I haven’t had any trouble with drafts even in the midst of howling winter weather. I do, however, end up with lots of dead, live, and halfway-betwixt-the-two rodents and birds in my house since I’m no longer there to act as bouncer. Also, sometimes the more aggressive cats camp out on the windowsill and don’t let the others in or out. Charming creatures. I do love them, though. And didn’t Aldous Huxley say that writers MUST keep cats?

17. Ha! My 2 dogs are not pleased with all the “meow’s”! Go get that kitty cat, guys!

    Best part of that video is when the cat just sits there after the door is opened. My cat of 18 years used to drive me crazy with that.

18. It is axiomatic of cats (my cats, at least) that they pretty much always want to be on the other side of the door. No matter which door, and no matter what is, in reality, on the other side of it. They don’t get to go outside because I live on a busy corner, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.

    And I, too, have a cat who spent mealtimes (hers) and absences (mine) sequestered in the bathroom for her first year (she was 6 weeks when I found her), because otherwise the protein-sensitive eldest cat would have eaten her food and stressed his liver to death. She still thinks the bathroom is the place for feeding and cuddles.

    Both this video and the “Wake up” one are frickin’ hilarious!

19. Erika @16:
    Yes, I agree, that is the problem w/ the cat door. Nothing like coming home to a live duck IN your living room to liven up an evening. Then again, I didn’t know there were flying squirrels native to FL until one ran across my face at 2 am fleeing from the cat. Took me 3 days to catch that guy. And the dead ones aren’t any nicer to deal with. Easier to catch, though.

20. We have discovered the great law of feline numbers is that the number of cats actually in the house is equal to the number of cats resident minus 1. Balance is thus maintained.

21. I have loved the “Wake Up” video ever since running across it, and now there’s more.

    Subscription added. Awesome.

22. Seriously, folks, if I didn’t have a cat I would get no exercise. Every ten minutes he’s sure that *everything* exciting is happening on the other side of the door.

    God forbid you should actually go into a room and shut the door. That’s just asking for trouble.

23. Hilarious. My cats are always on the wrong side of the door too. Our newest cat always wanted in when she slept on the porch. Now that she’s an inside cat she always wants to go outside.

24. Interestingly, I saw this same cartoon today at another blog that I read via my aggregator, exler.ru (in Russian). Alex, who writes it, is an admitted cat-person only slightly below Scalzi’s level of fervor. That leads me to believe that fervent cat-lovers have it wired in them to scour YouTube for new cat-related content :)

25. It never ceases to amaze me how well trained some owners are by their pets! If you want your cats to come in and out at their leisure then get a cat flap fitted.

    Also, we learned long ago to never allow the cats access to the bedrooms – as they start looking for breakfast any time after 5am. Ours get firmly shut downstairs overnight. They might complain the first time – but tough love is the answer!

26. I am living this cartoon even as I am watching it.

27. All it’s missing is the immediate request to be let back out (even though there is now a gaping hole through which to escape).

    I have a cat door, but still have to go through this since one cat (the small tortie) will guard it and not let the other (lumbering giant) through.

28. At our house, the dog gets in the act. So it goes something like this:

    *faint meow from outside that only dog hears*
    WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF
    *person tries to figure out why dog is barking*

    We’ve finally learned, if there’s no real reason for the barking, then the cat wants in.

    Also, our cat is fond of the speedway — in the back door then immediately through the kitchen to the garage door. Because, you know, it’s a different world out that door…

    -kat

29. I remember this with cats. Sometimes they would just walk away the moment the door opened, which was always fun. Or in the summer, if one door to the outside was closed, that of course was the one the cat had to use. Also, the trick of going in one door and out another. Especially when the weather is nasty, since they seem convinced that if they just find the right door to go out the weather will be nice.

30. That was great! thanks

31. I’m aware of only two cats throughout my life who were smart enough to figure out the purpose of a doorknob, and actually attempt to use it.

32. Cartoon Coyote @ 31: I currently have the lever-type door handles for inside doors (bedrooms, etc.) and one of my cats has figured out how to use it. We shut him in one of the bedrooms one day and a few minutes later, he was coming down the stairs. It doesn’t work if we use one of the rooms where the door sticks because he can’t put his weight against the door at the same time, but we know we can’t lock him into that room any more.