Meow Manor® Cat Door Interior Door - No-Flap, Interior Cat Door for Cats Up to 20 lbs, Easy DIY Setup, Secured Installation in Minutes, No Training Needed…

My husband and I wish we knew this cat door existed a long time ago. We put an addition onto our home whereas our master bedroom is on the first floor, located on the opposite end of our home. As you enter our bedroom there is a set of French doors leading to our backyard. If we need to shut our door for privacy, there was always the problem of having to keep the door open slightly or "answering the door" when our cat Mango needed to come in. We also happen to have Mango's litter box and feeder in our master bathroom (yup, not planned and we didn't even have any pets until after the addition was built). We don't mind "sharing" our bathroom with Mango, and our bed lol as we love him so much. He usually doesn't really need to get to his feeder or litter box when we need to shut the bedroom door, but as soon as the door is shut he scratches to come in and checks out what's going on, then he wants to leave again and come back in etc.. so getting this cat door has been a game changer!! It is actually a beautiful and functional cat door that was easy to install. It has not only solved our issues with wanting to keep the door shut without worrying about our cat's access needs, but he finds the door to be a fun "stakeout" area to look out for "potential predators" of which there are none🤦😺. The price is also very fair for the quality you get. One more asset is the ability to lock the cat door when needed....as when we have to keep the French doors open to carry something outside etc.

My kitties are coming in a few months. For them, I was looking for an interior cat door or pass-through between my kitchen and laundry porch, where I'll be keeping my litter box. The smallish laundry porch has a second door leading to my driveway. I wanted to be able to stop access to the laundry porch on those occasions I am bringing in groceries or something from the garage, and don't want the kitties (they'll be two indoor-only Bengals) to be able to get out. I didn't like the idea of a door with a locking flap because should they believe it to be open as usual, and find I'd locked it, they'd bang their heads on it, or even not be sure about trusting it! I next then decided, heck, I'll just purchase a pass-through -- basically a hole in the door with a kitty template. That way, if I needed the pass-through blocked, I could just put a large brick or object in front of the pass-through and they'd visually SEE they couldn't get through. The problem with that is the hassle of moving the brick or large object.I just saw this on a video from the folks with Kona the Bengal. The woman was rightfully giddy about how unique and different this was, and I liked its looks and functionality immediately. PLUS, the fact that it DOESN"T have an always-present flap was perfect for my needs. Now I can keep it always open, but on those rare occasions I'll need it closed for a few minutes, I'll just shut its little door.The extra bonus for ME, is that now -- when I might go on vacation and use a cat sitter service -- the sitter can come INTO the house from the driveway with Meow Mansion closed (while gone, I'd move the litter box into the kitchen). That way, she can come in and out with impunity and not worry about the cats squirting out --- she can have that safe buffer of closing the back door, THEN opening the interior door into the kitchen. I know that all sounds confusing, but just think of three areas (1) outside driveway with back door into laundry porch; (2) small laundry porch room with interior door into the kitchen; and (3) kitchen.I just got the kitty door today and even though I have a ton of projects to do, really couldn't wait to install it. Now, I CAN wrench a motorcycle and can do extremely minor repairs, but these are things ANYBODY can do if they read how to do it. The installation of the Meow Mansion was even easier and I absolutely had to take a crack at it. A month or two back (in anticipation of cutting out a whole in ONE of my doors), I purchased an inexpensive jigsaw. I pulled the interior door off the hinges (one of the two pins was stuck but a hammer and screwdriver wrenched it loose). The 1 1/4" thick door was not light but it wasn't difficult to bring it to my backyard where I placed it on my covered hot tub (nice, large flat surface); but really you can probably figure out some place in your home to do it; even on a simple table if there's room).I brought out everything I figured I'd need: the paper template, scissors, tape (to tape the template to the door), a pencil, my jigsaw, a Philips screwdriver, an electric screwdriver, (then, a) drill, screwdriver bits for all, an extension cord, the Meow Mansion and screws for it, a Yeti cup of ice water and my glasses (it was a nice sunny day, mid-60s in the late afternoon). One of my four photos shows most everything I mention just a minute or so before I started.Now, I'd uh, NEVER operated a jigsaw before, but watched a few YouTube videos, and opened the jigsaw package for the first time ever. I saw they gave me about 6 blades. I just made an educated guess which one to use, and even had to find a video of the model to see how to insert the blade. You might need two people to manhandle the door, but I did it myself -- not too heavy, just awkward. Having seen two separate installation videos, I just went for it. Cutting the paper template was easy. I tried to cut/stay in the middle of the outer black line. I then measured the width of the door and made a pencil mark at the center. I laid the template on it and taped it lightly in place away from tracing spots. I then traced with a pencil by pressing down the template and voila! I had a light but very visible line on my door.I plugged in the jigsaw and as best I could, followed the horseshoe-like line. Happily, the jigsaw had a laser light that helped; but I still had to blow away sawdust to see. In MY case -- perhaps because I was using the wrong blade or this was my first time using a jigsaw -- instead of taking about 30 seconds to cut out the hole, it was slow going and took me, I dunno, about 4 minutes. Even though a couple of times I strayed INSIDE my pencil line, I went back and cut those parts wider (that took maybe 20 seconds). It appears that the actual Meow Mansion plastic templates give you plenty of leeway, so don't get too caught up in being 100% perfect -- just do a reasonably good job.AFTER the hole was done, since I had an electric screwdriver I figured I was home free to emplace the 6 (3 on each side) screws onto the MM. But it was not to be. The electric screwdriver was meant for light in-home screws and NOT to start and finish screwing a wood screw into "virgin" wood. It just spun around. Well, I reasoned, I had a nice standard-sized DRILL. But I dunno, I'm no everyday driller either, and it spun around a bit, probably because I didn't think I needed to push down with force. Maybe I shouldn't have been that timid. [Editing here 2 years later it was really because I didn't drill a small pilot hole first.] Ultimately I ended up using a standard Philips screwdriver. I found you had to PUSH hard while screwing, and then they went in fine and I was able to cinch them down. So much for my hopes of just going "Wrrrrrrr" with an electric something-or-other and being done with each screw. Still, I just took my time -- maybe 2 minutes per screw. The only other hassle was completely turning the door OVER for the other side; slightly tricky, but not that difficult. After that, the instructions to emplace the little door handle holder or keeper was easy; even ingenious. You merely placed the keeper on the door handle, remove the sticky tape atop the keeper, then open the door on its hinges against the "wall," pressing the sticky part of the keeper onto the "wall." Then you carefully detached the door knob from the keeper. The keeper was then perfectly in place, and after you use the provided screw that comes with it (again, more cinching down), it is permanently in place. You're DONE!I know this sounded like a lot. But honestly, it took me perhaps 45 minutes from gathering all the tools, removing the door to the outside, cutting the template, the door; REALIZING the electric screwdriver wouldn't work and obtaining my drill and hooking THAT up; failing with that, THEN screwing the MM down manually; and finally placing it back on its hinges and taking photos.The bottom line is, this thing is cute as a button, a good size for just about any cat I'd think; can act as a kitty pass-through OR a blocking mechanism to another room, and was not difficult for someone who at least knows about a few basic home tools (hammer, pliers, some wrenches, that type of thing). Once it's finished there is a lot of joy in knowing you've made life easier and safer for you and your warm, furry friends -- oh, and your kitties too! haha I highly recommend this wonderful cat door!!