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will be drawn to this easily reached food rather than go through the trouble of climbingup into the bowls.• FliesFlies are mostly a problem when wet food is left out for an extended period of time inwarm weather. They can be avoided by training the cats to eat at a specific hour eachday, limiting the amount of time the food is available and removing any that’s uneaten.Putting wet food out during the cooler parts of the day, like dusk, will also help. If youmust, rely on dry food during warm weather. It will still attract flies, but not nearly asmany as wet food.If you want the deluxe solution to keeping flies out of the food, buyan automatic opening pet food bowl. Infra-red sensors detect when acat is approaching and trigger the lid to open automatically. When thecat leaves, the lid closes. Operates on batteries. To find availablemodels, search for “automatic opening pet food bowl” at Amazon(www.amazon.com).• RainIf you can’t place a covered feeding station on your site,you can still protect food from the rain on days when youexpect wet weather. Take a round plastic container or takeoutdish and fill it with dry food. Then take the lid of thecontainer or dish, turn it upside down and place on top. Evenupside down, the lid will keep the rain out. When the catscome by after the rain stops, they’ll smell the food in thecontainer and push the lid off to get at it.• FencesIf you feed through a fence and don’t have easy access to the other side where thecats are, it’s best to keep the food and water out of arm’s reach of passersby. To do so,use an inexpensive device known as an “arm extender” or “extension grabber.” Theseare the poles with clamps on the end that you see used in retail stores when an employeeis reaching for an item on a high shelf out of arm’s reach. They can be found in manyhardware stores or online. When feeding, fill the food and water containers and placethem under or through the fence. Then use your “grabber” to push the food and water asfar back from the sidewalk as possible. It’s even better if you can push the dishes behinda bush or pile of rocks and hide them at least partially from view.• PigeonsPigeons, like most birds, nest and sleep after the sun goes down. One way to avoidhaving them eat the cats’ food is to feed at dusk or after dark. However, this can be33