My cat, Dalmatian, is so fat he’s been mistaken for a soccer ball. Even so, I was surprised at how quickly he was going through his weight-control pet food. Until one night when our family was watching a movie and we heard a loud slurping noise from the water dish. We turned around to find a black-and-white critter of another kind finishing off Dalmatian’s dinner. A raccoon had come in through the dog door (Dalmatian is too fat to fit through a cat door) right into our family room. We don’t live in the country. We live in a decades-old suburban neighborhood in Redmond. But recently the city cleared a lot of trees and brush at nearby Grasslawn Park. Last year’s windstorm blew down a number of big trees and threatened more which some of us cut down to protect our homes. We kept our pet door closed for awhile, but started opening it up again after a neighbor saw a coyote in our front yard. We didn’t want Dalmatian to become dinner. Sure enough, the raccoon paid another visit and we’ve started closing up the pet door at night. Then last week, we noticed rabbits had taken up residence under our azaleas and rhododendrons. I suspect the wildlife is just running out of natural habitat and adapting to a closer co-existence with humans. But it’s a little unsettling to experience the invasion.
By Linda Byron

2 Comments

Malcolm said:

They sell pet doors with accompanying collars for pets with transmitters that only allow your pet to enter. Don't know what they cost.......but an option.

August 24, 2007 10:27 AM

Linda Byron said:

Thanks for the tip about the special transmitters for pet door/collars. I will pass this along to friends who have had the same problem.

August 27, 2007 1:41 PM

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