[bradknowles]

We have door levers, not knobs. Levers are easier to use, and look prettier. They’re also a lot easier for cats to use.

We have had to baby-proof all of the door levers to all of the rooms we don’t want our cats getting into.

One cat in particular is very long, and can easily just stand up on his hind legs and wrap his paws around the door lever, and then pull. I’ve watched him do it. He was looking at me through the glass door, and moving slowly and deliberately as he did it. As if to say “Hey, dad — you know this thing here above my head? It’s called a door lever. Let me show you how it works.” Yes, he was just a kitten at the time, and still long enough to pull down on door levers.

A cat we had a number of years ago realized that the doors we had in our house in Belgium usually didn’t close too well, and she could reach under the door and pull it open. She did the same thing with cabinets in the kitchen. She taught her daughters how to do the same thing. We had to get a lot better about fully closing and latching our doors, so that she didn’t just pull them open all the time.