And the winner, randomly selected by random.org, is Tricia Thompson!
Today’s a doozy of a giveaway for the cat people: a SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap!
I know a lot of people- including this one- keep their cats indoor only, and that’s OK. We will have other things for you. 🙂 For those who have secure and safe outdoor places for cats to roam, this is your lucky day!
I’ve heard the stories firsthand: you install a cat door, only to find your neighbor’s tabby chilling in your living room, eating all your cat food. Then he won’t leave. Reminds me of college. That would be distinctly unpleasant.
The SureFlap cat flap is a battery powered cat door with an embedded microchip reader. Any cat can get out, but in order to get back in the door must recognize your cat’s microchip. It can store up to 32 microchip numbers (though if you have 32 cats in your house, we should talk.)
The embedded chip reader is designed to work with the most common types of microchips used in Europe and the US, including the AVID chips and the ISO chips.
For now, SureFlap only makes this one cat-sized door, though I’m crossing my fingers they come up with a dog sized one. I could totally use that. In the meantime, the official SureFlap video demonstrates the process as well as gives you an idea of the sizing. It is also narrated by a person with a British accent, which always makes videos more enjoyable (speaking as someone who has had a combination Boston/Valley Girl accent my whole life. I would kill for a British accent.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cjQazODp4We have one SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap to give away to one lucky reader! Retail value of this product is $150.
To enter:
Leave a comment below with a tale of which adventurous kitty or kitties will be getting to use it should you win. Contest is open to readers worldwide!
I’m trying something new and I’ll see if I like it or not: You can enter once per day until the contest closes, so you can get up to 7 entries.
Deadline: June 28th, 11:59 PM PST.
Good luck!
Thanks for the info Dr. V! I stumbled across your article while researching a solution to my cats troubles. It helped a lot.
Should I win the cat flap, Good Boy, my orange tabby will be the one who gets to use it. He doesn’t have much interest in hunting and prefers to dig holes in the garden or groom himself in the shade of the apple tree. It is the neighbors cats, Grumpy Grey and Black Culy Tail who are the ones I would like to get a locking door for. Then they would no longer use my cat door to enter the house to eat Good Boy’s food and shed on my furniture.
I have indoor-only kitties and outdoor-only kitties (only because people seem to think they can drop their unwanted pets here), so I personally wouldn’t be using this. But, if I happen to win, I would like to sell it and give the money to my local animal shelter. Or give it to them to sell. They so need the funds.
What’s worse than your neighbor’s tabby crawling through the cat door? A coyote.
http://www.kgw.com/home/Coyote-chases-cat-through-cat-door-near-Battle-Ground-124199804.html
Whoa!!
Wow! This product is great. Kitty (yep, not very original but she was a stray that has managed to become family after 7 years!) would love something like this. Right now she has to wait for someone to personally let her out the door. So she howls at the door which is not so much fun late at night. Thanks for this opportunity!
My cat Fyodor will be using this.
Our new kitty Molly would be using this, it will save us getting up every 2 minutes to let her in and out.
Glad to see some love coming to the kitties. This intelligent cat-flap looks like a winner! It also ensures people microchip their cats, which is a good thing.
SInce I recently won a Pawcurious giveaway, I’ll exclude myself from this one, but it’s tempting to get one of these as it would save about a hundred trips up and down to let out and in the cats!
You can enter, it’s OK. If the random.org gods decide to rain giveaway winnings upon you, so be it!
What a clever little invention, and great way to promote microchips! And it would put a stop to waking in the middle of the night to answer nature’s call and randomly finding a raccoon in your house O_O
Oh man, this would be awesome! Possibly would use this on the basement door, actually, as we try to keep it closed to allow the kitties in the house to escape from the dogs. But that’s not always possible and *this* way the pups wouldn’t be able to follow them through the door! Winning for everybody (esp. me who won’t have to go open the door every 18 seconds when the cats decide they want back up. I mean down. I mean up. I mean …)
Oh dear. This is pretty awesome! We could really use this at our place, we have had no shortage of raccoons and skunks crawl through our cat door into our detached garage/office (sometimes while we’re IN there) and we just have to wait til they eat their fill and leave before letting out a sigh of relief. Keeping out the munchers would be nice for our fur friends and our anxiety about surprising a skunk indoors…
We have two cats, Abby and Mara, and they love to roam around and play together and this would be really helpful.
It doesn’t look like anyone else is going for the one entry per day option – makes me feel a little weird being the only one. But what the heck, my kitties are worth a little weird feeling now and again!
Dr. V, I have three cats who like to stay out during the day but it gets hot here in Texas. i want to put a kitty door in my whelping room door so they can come in out of the heat but since I occasionally have puppies in there it would not be good if anything else came in uninvited. This door would be great. I have Cleo, Cotton and Kitty who would love it also.
Diana
Ok, I ‘m ready for another entry – I want to win! I have been thinking of different options for where i could install this cat-door. I just hope my 14lb maine coon will fit through it!
What a great idea! I wonder if it can be installed into screen doors too! If it can’t I’d donate it so the proceeds go to local shelter(s). Can a Canadian win?
If it works, we have 4 girls who play the in and out game to get to our back deck which is gated and not screened so they can watch the backyard wild life and not get lost down the back ravine.
I tried to make my rescue kitty Butters become an indoor cat, but he was having none of it. He will destroy things loudly enough to wake us up in the middle of the night to let him out. He knocks over lamps, knocks stuff off the counter (or any surface), anything to make the loudest noise possible!! If that doesn’t work he attacks my Golden or jumps on the bed and bites us. Good lord I tried but just couldn’t live with the craziness. So he gets to go outside these days. This would be the perfect cat door. No other animal using it but him!
My kitty could squeeze through though that door
I’d love one of these! Let me tell you why!
Last year we relented and started to let our cats outside. They loved it. They loved it so much that if we left the door closed they would each meow nonstop until a human got up and opened it again. This behavior went on through the night as well…so we started to leave our door open at night time.
Even though we live in the city, apparently there are still wild creatures that come by our way. One night at about 3:00 a.m. we were woken up by insane screaming noises. You know that sound when cats are mating? It was like that times ten. And it was INSIDE of our house.
I ran downstairs and found two piles of fur – one was calico. That belonged to my cat Paisley. The other was suspiciously light and dark brown. Sure enough, in my laundry room was a raccoon. I do not like raccoons in my laundry room. He eventually found his way out but it took a while! My poor cat Paisley had a large wound on her tail which eventually healed. Neither of us enjoyed the week of antibiotics she had to have.
So now, my door stays closed at night time. And we keep getting woken up by annoying cats who want to go outside.
Please give us a Sure Flap Microchip Cat Flap!!!
My cat Judah would make use of this door. My dog might, too. She is the same size as my cat!
kowandamcbride at yahoo dot com
It’s great to hear about so many deserving kitties hoping for a SureFlap – it will be a tough decision for Dr V. to pick the winner!
I just wanted to respond to the cat guy and say that the cat door can sometimes be a little tight for larger breeds such as Maine Coons. We are working on a larger sized door which will be suitable for all cats and small dogs, which will be available towards the end of the year.
Good luck everyone!
I think if we had this kitty door all would be peace and love in our house. Instead, we have 4 am scrambles, tripping over dog toys, tripping over the lump of our foster golden (who’s really a bear in disguise), just hoping to get the cat (who is now behind the couch) outside. Hahaha!! I can’t imagine a night where we don’t wake up to let the cat out! But I do wonder if he would bring dead things in? 😉
This would be for my little kitty, Thomas O’Malley. He loves to go out onto the patio to catch tasty lizard snacks and this would be great so he could go out as he pleases 🙂
My cat the howler goes to the door and wails to be left out, then she stands outside the door and howls to get back in along with climbing the screen door. Gees!!!
pjames330 at aol dot com
I live on a farm so both my cats are in/out cats with strict rules (which somehow they follow) to be in after dinner. One night, years ago, my big guy stayed out when I went to visit friends and when I came home the entire front door was covered in blood and there he lay! Turns out he had been attacked by raccoons who had managed to RIP his tail off! Happily he recovered well but to this day he will still growl and try to go after raccoons – he is 15 now.
A cat door would have been a great help!
i rescue orphaned kittens that need bottle raised. i have 6 of my ‘own’ cats and continuosly have anywhere from 5-20 foster kitties of various ages. my need for the microchip pet door is for my 19 year old cat, Taz, that i have had since he was 6 weeks old. he now requires multiple meals a day, because he eats small amounts, and the other kitties are always stealing his food. i want to design a room only my old man Taz can go in & out of, without him having to wear a bothersome collar. the sureflap would be perfect for this. at the great age of 19, with perfect bloodwork & xrays, Taz certainly deserves every ounce of special care, doting on, and ‘spoiling’ that i can provide!
My kitty is an old girl. The neighbours cat[s] are forever coming in eating her food, lounging on her beds or sleeping on her couch. They know no shame, are regularly found on the “spare” room bed, snuggled in the duvet. Very annoying, one of these cat flaps would be ideal for our cat, her paws are up requesting one!.