Jasper of the Night

Rusty and Jasper make up the feline contingent of the zoo that resides in our house. Of the two, Jasper is the more timid while Rusty is generally more social and adventurous. At night when the house is quiet Jasper comes out of his shell and adventures out of the safety of my office. This has earned him the nickname "Jasper of the Night".

Last summer I installed a dog door in the back door. I found the biggest one I could with an extra heavy flap so our biggest dog Nana could get out with no trouble and it would be harder for wildlife to get in the house. The door is about 30 inches tall with a magnet in the bottom that keeps it closed. It takes considerable pressure to break the magnet and open the door.

During the day we open the back door to let the cats adventure in the back yard. They usually go out, but stay close and startle easy. A slight gust of wind will send them tearing into the house and upstairs into my office. The other night I forgot to close the door before it got dark and soon noticed Jasper missing. After a searching Jo and I found him outside through the fenced backyard in a neighbor's front yard. In the past he's gotten out at night and not come back. One time I found him the next day perched at the top of a 30 foot tall tree howling in fear. At the bottom was a geriatric blind and deaf dog that wouldn't hurt a fly. It took an hour to climb the tree, wrangle Jasper into a duffel bag and lower him to the ground with a climbing rope.

Not wanting to repeat the events of that cold morning I made sure the door was shut and got ready for bed. After a hour I noticed Jasper was absent again. I tore the house apart searching for him, but he was no where to be found. Rusty was meowing a distinct meow that both cats use to inform me when the other is missing, locked in the closet, etc. Surely Jasper couldn't have gone out the dog door. It was a typical Colorado Spring night with very strong winds (gusting to 40mph) and while brainstorming as to where else he could be I noticed during a gust the dog door blew open. There was no way he could time it right to make it out and if so the wind would scare him away from the door. The slightest gust terrifies him during the day.

Having failed to find him anywhere else I decided to look outside, sure enough he was two houses over exploring the bushes in their front yard. I locked the dog door and fixed the hole in the fence he was going through. Problem solved right...

Wrong. Last night, when the wind was calm and the dog door wasn't being blown open I caught him doing this:

He would ease up to the door and use all of his body weight to break the seal, then quickly squeeze through the hole. There was no way he could open the relatively huge door on kitty strength alone. It required a skillful technique that must have taken hours of trial and error to perfect. He could go in both directions and seemed to have the technique down. I couldn't help but think of how many nights of adventures he'd gone on without my knowing.

As I finished writing this I happened to look up at where Jasper was sleeping and he was gone. I found him in the back yard trying to get through the patched hole in the fence, I guess I need to start locking the dog door at night.