Portals

So I mentioned in a post last week (here) that we have a "kitty portal" going into our basement so the cats can have 24hr access to their litter box.  It's still very much a work in progress, but I wanted to share where we are now.

So here it is:

That's it.  A round hole in the drywall with an 8 inch concrete form inserted in it.  It goes through into the stairwell that leads to the basement.

A view from the other side:

And, just so you don't think we only have holes in the drywall on one side of the stairwell, I'll show you the other side:

This actually looks in at the underside of the tub in the guest bathroom.  We had to get rid of the drywall there since it was molded from an old leak.  It hasn't gotten replaced yet.  But soon.....

Of course the cats were very interested in why I was taking pictures of their tube.  

Obviously, won't stay like this.  This was just the first try to see if the cats would even use the thing. Cats, after all, are kings of doing the exact opposite of what you want them to do.  The tube will eventually get cut off so that it is only as deep as the wall cavity and we hope to finish out the drywall on both sides so that it fits seamlessly into the wall and kind of disappears.

And, yes, they do use it.  I even have a video to prove it.  Behold, Malcolm demonstrating the tube.

And lest you think it was easy to get this video, here is the four minutes preceding that moment where I waited forever for Gidget to come through the tube, only to have her bound through 2 seconds after I stopped the camera.  It does however, show the other benefit of the portal...that we can now play with each other on either side of the door.  Also, watch until the end for Malcolm butt wiggles as he waits to pounce.  Unfortunately, he got bored and never attacked.....