So far, they have not made it through the very expensive RFID cat door, but they did pull off the trim again, so I had to put it on with Liquid Nails. Not pretty, but I couldn’t use silicone because the smell would repel the cats, and it’s their door. Anyway, who looks that closely at the edge of the cat flap?

So…a raccoon did get into the garage. Somehow, it managed to get the door unlatched, and the hasp allowed just enough room for it (probably a kit) to get inside. He ate some cat food, but the problem occurred when he discovered he couldn’t get out. He certainly did try, and eventually succeeded, but not before he made one HELL of a mess. Tore up the (admittedly awful, but it is the garage) paneling.

Clawed and chewed the door itself.

Door was not easy to work with because I could swear they planed it with a fucking AXE. I had to get creative with some 1/4″ plywood and a leftover piece of 1/2″, but the door does close, and there’s no place for little trash panda fingers to enter. I just cut off the ragged panelling and slapped some 1/4″ plywood on that spot. Not pretty, but hey–it’s the garage, and since I’d taken an afternoon off to do it (too beautiful a day to be in an office), I damned well wanted it finished. For the record, thank Christ I own a belt sander because trying to cut something to fit the fucking mess they made of this door would have been impossible.

Since I did have the afternoon, I slapped one coat of paint over the door; it looked kind of trashy with the “portal” I had to make for the cat door, and then the repairs to the trash panda damage. I did tape around the window, which is more than the previous painter had done.

Doesn’t look too bad; I even cleaned the window. Not the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, but the door is old and beat up, so I didn’t have a lot to work with in the first place. There’s still a spot at the bottom where I think I’ll put some reinforcement so they can’t tear up the door any more, but that’s a cosmetic thing, and my sole concern yesterday was keeping the trash pandas out of our garage.