Isaac Newton invented the cat door, certainly a boon to my (and my cats') existence. It's almost as good as the gravity and calculus things.

Cats invented the cat door. They have claws. Humans just made the initial concept neater - at least that's what my cats tell me.

Thanks for reminding me. The SO has been talking about getting one for the patio door to let them come and go as they please. I was also reminded of it when one of them wanted in, wanted out, wanted back in, and then finally back out in 5 minutes this morning. I can find them at Home Depot, but not at Lowe's. Oh well. Usually this is the time of the year that I just leave the back door cracked for them, but we went from lows in the 70's to the 40's, and that's just too cool for my (now) Florida blood.

Then, of course, once the human version of the cat design is installed, our two cats (they are brothers) decide to chase each other and go to warp speed just as they hit the door and pop the door out of its enclosure.

The reason I'm the "SpaceCat": six cats, three cat doors, no waiting. Of course, my cat doors are just flaps cut in existing screen doors.
These are convenient for the cats (and their friends)... and an assortment of wildlife. Through the years, I've had possums, raccoons, armadillos--- and at least one skunk- who was polite enough to not skunk the house, but sure had me worried!

What I *really* want is Star Trek sliding doors that automatically open to RFID tags in my cats' collars.

What I *really* want is Star Trek sliding doors that automatically open to RFID tags in my cats' collars.

It's not RFID, but if you're the only kid on your block with one, there are electronic doors that respond to a(n uncoded) microwave emitter on the collars. We had one in California, and it worked fine for both cats, except that occasionally the cat next door would tailgate Jessica and follow her in, and then get stuck in the house because she wasn't smart enough to let him out.

You can get them here.

Oh, come on! Any informed reader of the works of Douglas Adams would know this, without recourse to . In fact, his opinion was that the Cat Flap was a much more clever invention than the Law of Gravity. After all, gravity was there all the time... See? They even keep it on at weekends!

(The actual name of is apparently "objectionable content.)

Hmm. Doesn't like my meta-formatting either. (attempting to describe the name of the dictioary in a non-opbjectionable way.)

I need to be careful what technology I give my cats access to. One of them is the only living creature to deliberately shut NASA Watch off. When the server was on an ISDN line in our old condo he somehow managed to step on exactly the right keys to shut the server off. Dan Goldin wanted to give him a medal. The other cat can be heard faintly in the background in a recording made during a live interview I did with an ISS crew from home. One of the crew told me later that he thought he heard a cat...

Keith: are they siamese?

No. One is a Tabby and the other (his brother) is black. Strays from an abandoned litter.