Purr-serverance (lame!lame!)

So last night Basil and I got acquainted with a new addition to the house - the cat door. Yes it's taken me forever, but I finally got sick of waking up, finding the cat sitting 2mm away from my face staring at me, willing me to wake up and let him outside for a wee. At 3am.

So yesterday I got home and didn't feed him as usual. This resulted in him practically stapling himself to my legs, as in , Hey Mum, can't you SEE me? Look how snuggly I am! And I love you so much!!!

Instead we sat together by the cat door and I let him sniff it. Nothing too scary surely.

I then put his food on the other side (steak and kidney, only the best) and held the flap open. He looked at me all, Mum, you have to OPEN the DOOR. I then picked him up, held the bit of meat out through the flap, and waited till he was just about to eat it, then dropped it. He fell through it like a Slinky.

I did this a few more times and each time he got better. I then upped the ante by dropping the food through and not opening the flap. Quizzical looks ensued. I then picked him up and bunted his head against the flap. This resulted in furious wiggling and the tail wag of doom.

I gave up for a bit and fortified myself with a Chardonnay. Basil had his eighty-seventh bath of the day.

I tell you, that cat is Clean. Licky noises are not my favourite though.

We then had another go, this time coming in from the outside. Excuse the shocking pic - Basil tends to camouflage at night.

Everything was going well until, just before bedtime, I gave it one last shot. Picking up Bas and striding to the door, who should be outside but next door's enormous furry scary-looking German Shepherd Jack, hoovering up all the dropped biscuits and bits of beef. Basil grew 80% in size, and commenced to hissing and scratching, and hiding under the bed. He now looks highly suspiciously at the cat door, and I had to get up at 3am to let him out for a wee.

Anyone have any tips I can try?