Maybe old dogs can't learn new tricks, but apparently old cats can.

Lucy has been an ideal pet for the last 12 years, but one thing that always bugged me about having a cat was the litter box.

Having a box of pee and poop just sitting somewhere in the house was never that awesome...so I came up with a brilliant solution: a doggie door to the garage! Instead of having that stinky, portable outhouse indoors, we could keep it outside!

In a matter of days, my plan was being put into action. The little door within the bigger door had been installed.

I showed Lucy and was met with a less than enthusiastic "meow?"

It took 3 weeks, 5 boxes of fruit roll ups and countless accidents in what she had designated her new toilet: the guest room...but we did it.

Lucy who was already 8 years old at that point, learned how to use a doggie door.

I was thrilled. Everyone told me it couldn't be done, but I proved them wrong!!!

There was just one small snafu: I forgot to put any time and energy into training my husband to close the garage door consistently...

I wasn't worried about Lucy leaving...that was not an issue. Lucy is not motivated to venture out into the unknown. She got out once when she was a kitten and I think the memory of being stuck in the rain with fleas was enough to scare her straight.

The thing we had to be worried about was the opposite. We had to be vigilant about the other animals in the neighborhood who were motivated to do some exploring.

The first time I realized that closing the garage door was important was on a lazy Sunday...

Aaron and I were napping on the couches in the living room when I sat up straight.

"What a weird dream. That baby wouldn't stop crying, and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from." I shook my head reaching for my bottle of water.

I was just about to take a drink when I heard it again. It was the baby from my dream! I put down my water and stood up. The sound of the baby was getting louder.

I walked into the kitchen and found the source of the crying. It was no baby. It was a large, fierce-looking black and orange cat. He was howling as he circled a cowering Lucy.

"AARON!! HELP!" My husband jumped up, looking bewildered. "THERE'S A CAT IN THE KITCHEN!!!"

"Lucy?" He asked.

I shot him an exasperated look and said, "ANOTHER cat!!!"

We used a two pronged approach. Aaron grabbed the feline intruder and I grabbed Lucy, checking for wounds.

In a matter of minutes, the frenzied panic in the kitchen was over.

"We have to remember to close that garage door!"

Aaron nodded. We didn't have another incident for at least two weeks...until Jonathan decided to stop by.

It was a Saturday afternoon. I was in the living room doing paperwork and Aaron was outside pulling weeds.

I looked up from the computer just in time to see Lucy sprinting down the hallway toward our bedroom which was weird because Lucy never sprinted...anywhere.

I got up and headed into the kitchen to investigate, and I found him.

A small beagle was standing in the middle of the room. When I entered, he ran right over to me, trying to lick my face.

"What the...?"

I glimpsed the doggie door and noticed an inordinate amount of sunshine peeking through. Not again...

Of course, we had left the garage door open again and another little guy had decided to pay us a visit. I checked his tag and saw that his name was Jonathan.

I scratched his ear and said, "Well, hello, Mr. Jonathan." Under his name, was a phone number. I grabbed my cellphone and dialed. No answer.

I waited until I heard the voicemail click on and left a message, letting the person know we had their dog.

As I hung it up, I noticed that Jonathan was sniffing Lucy's food bowl. Could dogs have cat food? It must all be the same. I poured some of Lucy's food into a bowl and offered it to Jonathan.

He sniffed it and looked up at me.

I guess not.

Wanting to be a hospitable hostess, I opened my refrigerator, looking for something more appealing.

My eyes landed on a leftover steak from a meal we'd had the week prior. I opened the tupperware container and sniffed. As I did so, Jonathan licked his lips. I guess he could smell it, too.

"Is this more to your liking?" I cooed at him. He wagged his tail. I cut it up into bite sized pieces and set the bowl in front of him.

He gratefully wolfed it down.

I was sitting on the kitchen floor watching him eat when Aaron walked in, finished with his yardwork. "I'm starving. I think I'm going to make a quesadilla with that leftover steak."

I looked up at him. "It's gone." Jonathan barked.

Aaron did a double take. "Where did that dog come from?!"

"Someone forgot to close the garage door again."

Aaron looked sheepish. "Oops. Does he have tags?"

I nodded and told him that I had already called and left a message.

"You didn't give him that steak...did you?"

"I..." The sound of my ringing cell phone cut me off.

"Hello?"

"Hi. You called about Jonathan?"

"Oh, hi! Yes, I did. He came through our doggie door. We have him here at our house. He's fine. I'm sure you were worried." (actually he didn't sound worried at all...)

"Thank you for taking him in. I'm not even sure how he got out."

"It happens." I heard a sigh on the other end of the phone and waited for the man to tell me when he was coming to get his dog.

"Do you think you could just keep him overnight?"

I was stunned. "Um...no. Sorry. We have a cat, and well, we don't really have any food for him." (I didn't mention the steak.)

The man sighed again. "Alright. It's just that I'm right in the middle of something...you know?"

"MmmHmm." I waited. The man on the phone waited. After an uncomfortable silence, I asked, "So...do you want our address then?"

He sighed again. "Yeah."

I gave it to him, and he said he'd be at our house within the next few hours.

As soon as I had ended the call, Aaron was all over me. "What did he say?"

"He wanted us to watch him overnight!"

"What?? Was he relieved that we had his dog?" I shrugged. "That's weird...you told him we couldn't keep him...right?"

"Of course."

"Ok. Now, back to this steak...what made you think it would be a good idea to give a strange dog some strange meat? What if he gets sick?"

"Oh! Blah! He's fine." I crooned, scratching Jonathan under the chin.

Aaron shook his head.

We both looked up in surprise when the doorbell rang. That was fast.

Aaron opened the door and immediately told Jonathan's owner that I had fed him steak. What a tattle tale!

Luckily, Jonathan wasn't on any sort of special diet. (Seriously...why does Aaron have to be such a boy scout!?)

The man thanked us and that the was the last we saw of Jonathan.

Since that time, we have moved to a new house...you may be happy to know that it is a house with a non-functional garage door opener.

So...we can't park our cars in the shade, but on the bright side, we haven't had any more uninvited four-legged visitors either...and I'm proud to say that Lucy has not forgotten how to use the little door that leads to her toilet.