[Dailydrool] Gates with kitty doors

[dpmcquade at verizon.net]

<<You can also cut out a cat sized hole in a baby gate that a basset cannot get through. Some gates come with these already built in, like the one from Home Improvements catalog.>>
 
Watch out for these kitty-gated gates. Bassets, even very large-chested ones, can get through. Abner proved this to us a few years ago, shortly after his back surgery. We went out, leaving the gate around the stairs. When we came back, there was Abner in his favorite fear spot at the top of the stairs--before his surgery he always went there whenever a loud noise scared him. The gate had not been moved at all, and I couldn't figure out how he got past it. Even though we have never attached the gate to the wall, it had not seemed to move at all. The space left between the gate and the wall was not enough to allow a basset access to the stairs.

A while later, when we were painting our living room and had moved the gate to block access to that room while the paint dried, Drew saw how Abs did it. Determined to reach us in the living room, Abs squeezed his huge chest through a tiny kitty gate. I could not see him from my chair, but Drew got a good look and swears to me that it really happened. I did see Abner in the living room, when he was was supposed to be blocked in the dining room. The gate had not moved appreciably. I kept insisting Abs could not have done it, but numerous times Drew swore to me that he had. I don't think he was pulling my leg.

So don't be surprised if even a small kitty gate does not stop a basset. The kitty gate was only about eleven inches diagonally, from corner to corner, but our large-chested boy still made it through. I can't tell you how. Maybe it's that basset magic.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets