M&M and Leo

Besides our two doggies we have a nice little cat named Leo. Leo adopted us one dark, rainy Friday night a few years ago. He literally came to our door while we were watching the late night news. We didn't hear anything but Maya did and she started barking at something at the other side of the door. We discovered a little wet and hungry cat. Despite Maya's barking at him he did not want to leave so we took him in 'for the night' with the intention to call the SPCA on Monday to see if we could find the owners. Long story short we ended up adopting him and he has become part of the family.

We have had some challenges with him and Maya in the same house mostly related to Maya's voracious appetite for cat food. Maya accepted him as part of the family quite quickly and Leo and Maya are friendly with each other. Maya however discovered Leo's food was very delicious. Maya was quite sneaky about it and we didn't realize that she was helping herself to Leo's grub until we noticed that Leo was coming to us looking for food not long after we had just filled his dish!

Once we realized we had a problem we started on the road of trying to figure out how to keep food available for Leo while trying to keep Maya out of it.

We tried a whole variety of solutions such as putting a cardboard box around Leo's food dish, cutting a small catsize door in the box so Leo could get in but Maya could not. Unfortunately we discovered Maya one night with her snout pushed into the 'door' and getting at the food without too much trouble. With Mia coming into the house we decided we needed a solution that would be dog proof. The result was the Dog Gone Cat Feeding Station. It has a little door at one end that Leo can get into and we have food and water at the far end so no dogs can get at it. It is all made of solid cedar so no dog snouts can force their way in.

We can open the top to get into it to replenish the food and water and do any necessary tidying up. Leo seems to like it as it is secure but light and airy. The dogs don't like it. I have caught both M and M in there peeking in through the lattice with a hang dog look. A great side benefit is Leo's food is lasting much longer now.