The Answer To Life The Universe And Everything
Posted By Judith on 12th March 2019
The back door on the porch was falling apart and had been for some time. Renovating the porch was going to be the last ‘big’ job at ‘Grassy Bottom’ and was due to go ahead later this year, but sadly that won’t be happening now, however I couldn’t ignore the door which was quite frankly a disgrace.
Enter Adrian our builder, who 3 days before Xmas came to replace the rotten old wooden door, with a shiny UPVC one complete with cat flap.
Considering we have had cats for 40+ years we have never had a cat flap, so this was going to be a new experience for all concerned. I didn’t have long to teach Grayson how to use it (Poppy doesn’t go out these days) as I was going away at Xmas.
The day dawned wet and miserable. Adrian arrived around 10am and after 2 hours the new door was in place, but cement work had to be put off until the following day, due to the wet weather.
As soon as Grayson awoke from his morning nap I decided to give him his first cat flap lesson. It didn’t go well.
The first problem was that I was wading around in mud, inside and out, due to the bad weather which had managed to get into the porch during the fitting process. The second problem, Grayson isn’t the sharpest tool in the box and has a short attention span.
I ‘posted’ him through the flap from both directions, bag of ‘Dreamies’ in hand, but he didn’t like it and soon got fed up. I tried to explain it was for his own good, but he didn’t listen, preferring instead to go pick a fight with Macbeth.
I decided I needed a Plan B just in case I couldn’t teach him in time for Xmas Day and so my fall-back plan was to prop the flap open permanently just for now and resume lessons in the New Year.
I remember my friends held theirs open with a clothes peg, sadly mine didn’t seem to offer that facility.
I needed a method that wouldn’t impede the function of the actual door and after a few abortive attempts I thought a bit more and came up with Blu Tack.
Rammed hard into the 2 top corners with the flap in the open position, it seemed to do the trick.
So there you are. The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything isn’t 42. It’s Blu Tack!
You might be interested to know that Macbeth and the marauding Siamese both taught themselves to use the cat flap within hours of it’s installation. They now both let themselves in throughout the day, which causes it’s own problems.
It took Grayson well into the New Year to get the hang of it. He’s got the looks, but sadly not the brains.
