When Is A Hole A Door?!

So here it is a beautiful 60+ degree Saturday. The birds are singing, the sun is shinning, the cats have been tossed outside to enjoy the day and Emilie is outback playing.

Now the problem with tossing the cats outside is that they don't want to be there, so they're usually trying to sneak back in any chance they get. Well, back several years ago our dog thought it was okay and a good idea to take a tiny rip that was beginning in our sliding screen door and make it BIGGER. Yup, we'd catch her chewing and pulling on it - I guess she was prolly trying to tell us something. Well, the dog is long gone but the hole still exists and is about the size of a volleyball now or was - damn I curse the days that I am only somewhat handy, otherwise I would repair it, damn!

With the beautiful weather we opened up the french doors to let in some fresh air. Well, this poses a problem because now the cats use the hole in the screen as their little kitty door, uugh!

So, in an effort to prevent the cats from coming back in the house, I prop Emilie's placement against the hole and then use a pair of sneakers to secure it in place. OK, admittedly it's not the prettiest but it's a temporary solve - damn I wish I was handier.

Since Emilie loves to do the in and out thing, she is constantly opening and closing the screen door. You can now see another flaw in my temporary fix for the hole, opening and closing the door. The fix for this was to lock the screen door, hooray problem solved right?! Nope, now how is Emilie going to do her in and out thing with a locked door?! She was instructed to use the basement door but cmon she's only eight and wasn't about to walk ALL the way down the deck stairs, into the basement and then up ALL the stairs into the kitchen, nope.

She had something else in mind; a work around if you will. Can you guess what she did and what I heard, hmmmm?!? Like the dog who thought she had a good idea too, I hear the distinct ripping noise of screen (it does make a unique sound, really it does. If you don't believe me take out one of your window screens and tear a small piece and you'll see or rather hear what I'm referring to. You can always prompt something in front of the hole to "fix"). I jump up and come into the kitchen in time to see Emilie crawling through and half wedged in the screen hole. The ripping sound was of course her making the hole bigger so she could fit; it was simply too small for her to get through, AAAAAAHHH! So, I rolled up a newspaper and administered punishment as you would a dog - when in Rome right! I believe we've corrected her and this behavior. Now, if I was only handy enough to repair this hole properly, curses!