By Leo Black
A man who lives in a first-floor apartment devised a contraption to let his cat out easily – a DIY “cat-elevator.”
Kai Liebe, 33, pulleys his cat down every morning from his kitchen window and then back up when the cat is done with his walk.
Kai adopted Miso, four, in 2018, but the cat loved being outside so much that he couldn’t bear keeping him inside.
So he decided to build a DIY “elevator”, which he pulleys using his window handle, with a duffel bag and a rope.
Kai, a journalist from Munich, Germany, said: “You can’t keep him inside. If I let him in and try to go back to sleep, he will wake me up by screaming.
“The idea comes from my neighbor. He lets the cat out like that and has been for eight years.
“I always wanted an outdoor cat because my neighbor’s cat is always roaming free and it seems happy.”
Now, Miso goes outside to roam all the time, and Kai can track him using a GPS on his collar.
Miso is a well-behaved cat, so Kai doesn’t worry about him disappearing.
When he sees him come near the house, Kai whistles, and Miso runs right back to the “elevator.”
Kai said: “We’ve been doing it every morning and evening for the last four years.
“As soon as I see him nearby, I open the window and whistle, and he comes running back to get in the bag.”
Aside from convenience, Kai’s favorite thing is seeing how much joy Miso’s elevator brings passers-by.
He said: “It always makes people’s day. My roommate lets Miso down sometimes and always texts me things like: ‘An old lady saw me, and she was cracking up.'”
Kai sometimes worries that someone might think Miso is a stray, but the animal is tagged and has Kai’s contact information on him.
He said: “The only streets are 100 to 200 meters away, so I’m not worried about him going into the road.
“I get a lot of comments on Instagram saying: ‘What if a coyote gets him,’ I live in Munich, there are no coyotes here.
“In winter, I was worried that someone would try to rescue him, but it’s never happened.”
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