The Cat Door Window – Phase One

Update: State of the Cat Door/Window in 2015.

Recently I grew tired of letting Monki, our cat, in and out of the house. I wanted her to be confident that she could come inside whenever she wanted, especially when we aren’t home and it gets cold. I also did not want to replace or modify our outside doors, as the side door would require two cat doors or a long tunnel and front door… well, it’s the front door. So after browsing around a bit and seeing different examples of folks who built ladders for their cats to get in and out of apartments, second floor windows and the like, I decided that might be a good fit for our home. Here’s the result:

I didn’t spend a lot of time planning this project. I put probably eight hours into it over the course of a couple of weeks.

I was able to recycle materials for most of the project so the pet door and the plexiglass were just about the only things that I spent money on, about $45 combined.

I used a length of wood I found in the house to create the window ledge, but any common plywood would have worked well. I gave her plenty of room on either side of the window. It has become her favorite perch, especially when it’s raining outside.

The window was built using some scrap wood that was almost 1″ x 1″. I put plexiglass on either side of the frame and so far it seems to do quite well at holding the temperature. I also edged certain spots with door/window insulation trim and sealed some of the gaps with foam sealant (see pictures). Cutting plexiglass in straight lines is not difficult and Lowes will even do this for you when you purchase it. Cutting out the shape for the cat door was a lot more challenging but after several cracks we discovered that putting a thin layer of wood underneath it for support and cutting through both worked well and the second layer came out with no cracks at all.

It took some time to train her to use the door but several adventures in and out with treats over the course of a couple of days and her own very powerful desire to go outside (she can’t stand it when it’s rainy and she can’t go hunt and play) she took to the door quite well. She still scratches at it with her paw a bit to get it moving but I expect that over time she’ll learn she can just push with her head.

The next phase of this project involves painting and staining it and possibly adding an RFID lock and a curfew timer. I also have some molding that I picked up at Lowes to place around the interior edges of the window to give it a final professional look.

Feel free to comment below if you have questions.