Do any of you have pet doors in areas with lots of other critters, and do they stay out?
I would latch it at night and sometimes during the day.
For a Jack Russell and a cat.
Keeping mice out so far has been impossible anyway, since they can fit through a quarter size opening, on it's flat side, LOL.

Hi joy, I had a problem with racoons when I had a pet door. Was not accessible all the time, but it came into my kitchen (I live in semi rural area on the outskirts of a small town). They are very resourceful and always ready to try anything where they smell food. I opted for just letting cat and dog out the door.

Tick

Thanks tick. Now that I think about it, our local paper is full of stories of raccoons getting through pet doors. The dog barks but the cat refuses to meow. We have plenty of glass but I have to be looking for her. Maybe I'll try some bells hanging down and see if I can teach her to make noise that way.

Supposedly my parents (in this house) put their cat out every night of the year, in a basket house, unheated. I can't believe it. The cat hunted and lived a very long life. I just can't do that.

It is not just a rural issue, there are 1000's of little critters in major urban areas.

They do make pet doors that the pet wears a special collar, the door will not open without that collar

Yup raccoons are a major issue;

YouTube - Take a thieving Raccoon, Dog and a Cat.. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnMk6ABXg28&feature=related)

I'd rather just open the door to let the pets out. :)

We almost had a very unlucky cat here.
We have a door between out kitchen and laundry and then another door between the laundry and backyard.
The laundry/backyard door has a pet flap on it.

Well... I let the dogs out for a pee one day , just flung the door open and walked off, they started going absolutely mental in the laundry, I could also hear this strange growling noise.

A neighborhood cat had come through to dog door and curled up on a pile of washing to have a snooze.

I raced back out and in a panic threw the dogs outside.

Well problem, was I now had the dogs outside blocking the angry cats only escape route.

Long story short the cat was actually quite friendly and I carried him out the front door to safety before I let the dogs back in.

This was months ago and Prada (poodle) still checks to see if there are any cats before she goes outside :D

So funny.
I forgot too that years ago I lived in an old house that raccoons ripped off the metal flashing we NAILED on to keep them out.