Her own box

No, I wasn't talking about a litter box...there are 4 of those in my house and a large one outside called my yard. It's a 'feeding box'. For those of you who don't own a pet, you're probably are going to think I'm insane.

SPOILED CAT

When Basti started her anorexic episodes, I became frantic. If there's one thing I don't like, it's a cat not eating because it usually means something's wrong. So for a year or so, I carried the food to her. The other 2 cats get fed 4 times a day but she got food whenever, wherever she wanted. And also when she didn't want it. She got fed on the floor, on a cabinet, on the table, on a cat tree at any given time during the day. Now, in itself that's not a bad thing. Cats supposedly eat for 3 minutes at a time all through the day if left to their own devices. One big problem though: I couldn't leave the house for long periods of time because leaving food out creates a different set of problems:

My red monster Blinky

Blinky, my red-haired tomcat is a cookie monster.He eats wet food, kibble, peas, broccoli, cauliflower and his favorite; croutons! If I leave any food out, there's a 99% chance he'll be the one to eat it. And he's the one who's on a permanent diet. This 7 kilo (15.5 lbs) cat does not need food from either of my other cats.

SOLUTION

I needed a space that only Basti could go into that wasn't any room the others would want to sleep in (bedrooms) or were noisy (laundry room). This meant I couldn't do it in any specific room in the house. So I built a wooden box with a cat flap that responded only to her chip and put it in the living room where I could keep an eye out. The box is 45 cm wide, 78 cm long and 68 cm high ( 18x31x27 inches). It is made from really sturdy wood and has a lid that's too heavy to be opened by even my red monster. The only disadvantage is that it's completely closed off except for the cat flap so it's pretty dark inside. So I came up with another solution; a light running on batteries.

Now the only solution I have to find is how to get the cat in the box :-). That is, without first putting her in front of the cat flap, with the flap duct-taped open...