Who needs a cat f lap? I can let myself out
LIKE many an independent feline, Muffin the tabby comes and goes exactly as she pleases.
But as their home does not have a cat flap, owners Ken and Linda Ellis were struggling to get a handle on quite how she managed it.
The mystery was finally solved when Muffin, five, was filmed opening the back door herself by their son Andrew, 38, on his mobile phone.
Standing up on her hind legs, she reaches up to pull the handle down, then hooks a paw behind the door to swing it open before exiting into the garden.
Mr Ellis, 64, a retired teacher who runs a gardening business with his wife in Ely, Cambridgeshire, said: ‘We reckon she’s a teenage cat because she can open doors, but doesn’t shut them behind her. Most cats are intelligent and can work strategies out, but she is particularly astute at figuring out how to get to where she wants to go.’
The footage went viral after the couple sent it to Muffin’s previous home – an animal shelter in nearby Duxford run by the charity Wood Green – which uploaded the amazing clip on to its website.
Mr Ellis said: ‘We’ve never had a cat flap – although there has been serious talk about getting one. There just doesn’t seem to be much point now.’
He added: ‘The door handle has a slightly loose spring and ought to be mended, but if I did that then I think we’d have a very grumpy cat.’