"This cat door is just OK. It works well, in that it does it's job. I bought the small one and it was totally fine for our two average sized cats. It is NOT quiet though. That doesn't bother me much really, since I have 2 kids under 2 so our house is always noisy anyways. haha. But yes, I can hear the cats going through it from the other room. Also, my cats have figured it out! It goes from our kitchen to basement door. At night we lock them in the (finished & warm, with food and water) basement since they are more like dogs and will rip apart the house at night. Anyways, I would lock it so they could go down but not back up. Well, we discovered that our cats use their paw to swing it up and then quickly shove their heads through to catch it, and then get in! ALSO, yesterday our cat banged into it repeatedly when it was completely locked and busted the locking mechanism of the plastic!! So now it won't lock at all and we have to get a new one. SO, apparently the plastic isn't very strong. Or my cat has super-cat strength and a hard head! Which I suppose is highly likely. These cats are more like mini-tigers! Like I said before, they are really more like dogs in every way, which is very strange. ANYWAYS, yes, this cat door is alright. I suppose if you have an older cat that is more mellow it wouldn't be an issue at all (ours are just a year old)."