How does your cat demand entrance to your castle? Most indoor-outdoor cats have their own way of letting their owners know when they want to come inside for a meal, a warm nap, and possibly a hug. The Mud Cat’s method isn’t unusual—not like the cats in YouTube videos that ring doorbells to get in.
One of my neighbors recently installed a cat door. But “Elsie” doesn’t always use the cat door. Apparently it’s not at a convenient height so most of the time my neighbor still has to listen for a miaow that says “let me in.” In contrast Ben, my previous cat, had no issues with his cat door even though he had to jump up the height of one stair to use it. But how about all of the cats that don’t have their own private entrance?
The same neighbor told me about a cat that learned to ring a buzzer when it wanted in. “No way,” I thought. I wasn’t sure which end of the transaction was harder to believe—the cat’s demand or the owner’s response. Of course both parties would need to cooperate to make things work.
Skeptical on what might be an urban legend, I searched for “cats ringing doorbells” on the YouTube web site and got several hits. Apparently a number of cats can do this. A posting titled “Baby Cat Ringing His Doorbell” stood out from the rest. It looks professional with high quality video and sound, and a freshly groomed cat. The setting is a nice house in the suburbs. The whole thing may have been staged, but if so someone went to a lot of effort.
To prove the point the producer shot the doorbell sequence from inside the house and from the deck. The video is almost four minutes because after the doorbell chimes the cat has to wait while the owner takes his or her sweet time getting to the door. By the end you are definitely rooting for the cat.
Back to the Mud Cat. When he’s ready to come in, he crouches on the back deck by the sliding glass door to the master bedroom. That’s a good spot because he can see inside, and I’m in that room a lot working on my computer. If I don’t notice him, he’ll make a noise to get my attention. So far we have never needed a doorbell.
Mud Bay Blog 
In his more agile days Trax would get up on the fence so he could peer into the kitchen to let us know he wanted to come in. I always thought it was because Dad couldn’t hear his meows and never responded to them. Now he just waits patiently by the door for someone to notice him.
Our cats have it really easy. We leave our back door to the living room, which is inacessable accept to cats, slightly open, so they can come in and out at will while we’re away in Shimabara. While we’re in Nagasaki, they sometimes have to let us know by miaowing.
Makes you wonder how they taught him to ring the door bell with such delayed gratification.