Doors for animals

The door for animals is very convenient for owners of dogs and cats, as it gives the pet the opportunity to enter the house at his request, eliminating the need for owners to let them out onto the street manually and reducing unwanted behavior, such as loud barking, damage to walls and doors, as well (especially in the case of dogs) coping with the needs of the house. It also helps to make sure that the pet left on the street can safely return to the house in severe weather.

The simplest type is the dampers, which close automatically, like a swing. Such shutters often have magnets around the edges that help keep the door closed even in high winds. Some of them have side hinges and look more like ordinary doors. Such doors are usually adapted to keep the passage closed while the pet is outside. Instead of rubber dampers, pet doors are made of plastic, acrylic or plexiglass.

Another feature is an adjustable latch to limit the opening of the device in one or the other direction; for example, to allow the pet to return home at night, but not to let go back until the owner returns the latch to its original position the next morning. Some animals, mainly cats with their retractable claws and flexible paws, can bypass one-way doors, especially those of the “shutter-to-shutter” type.

Most devices also have a locking mechanism ^[1] , which, thanks to special guides, allows you to close the door from the inside, by sliding a special plate.

Doors for animals are primarily safe for the pets themselves. The panels are made of soft materials, such as vinyl , which prevent the animal from becoming stuck or injured. Plastic doors are not well suited for large and clumsy pets.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use of the expression “cat flap” in 1957, and the “cat door” in 1959 ^[2] , but in fact the idea itself is much older.

Isaac Newton really did not like to be distracted from his studies, especially in household matters. There is a legend that he cut a special hole in the door to let out and let his cat in without approaching the door. According to this legend, when kittens appeared in a cat, he made an additional smaller hole in the door for each kitten ^{[3] [4]} .

In fact, Newton never kept cats or other pets ^[4] .

In England , Ireland and other regions with a large number of livestock fences, through which people pass through gates, fences often have wooden, climbing hatches, because the dogs are not too strong to climb over fences and are often very difficult to jump over an obstacle.