Pet-door-containing insert unit for a sliding-door frame

Claim 1

A pet-door-containing insert unit for a sliding-door frame, including upper and lower substantially parallel, laterally directed, sliding-door trackway means, an end-positioned, vertically directed door jamb, and a sliding door cooperating therewith, comprising: a substantially rectangular insert unit frame means provided with a pet-doorway-defining frame means adjacent to the bottom thereof; said pet-doorway-defining frame means being provided with a normally closed, pet-openable, automatically closable door member normally lying across and substantially closing a pet doorway opening defined by said petdoorway-defining frame means; said pet-openable door member being provided with attachment means effectively attaching same with respect to a corresponding portion of said pet-doorway-defining frame means, said attachment means comprising effective hinge means of flexible material characterized by what is known as plastic memory; said insert unit frame means being adapted to be positioned vertically between corresponding, vertically spaced, upper and lower, sliding-door trackway means, with top and bottom edges of said insert unit frame means being fixedly engageable therewith, and with a first vertical side edge of said insert unit frame means being laterally engageable and abuttable with an end-positioned, vertically directed door jamb of a sliding-door frame and with an opposite second vertical side edge of said insert unit fRame means being laterally engageable and abuttable with a vertically directed edge of a sliding door slidably carried between such vertically spaced, upper and lower, slidingdoor trackway means of such a sliding-door frame whereby to provide a continuous closure of an opening which would otherwise be present between such a vertically directed sliding-door edge and such a vertically directed door jamb of such a sliding-door frame; an auxiliary sealing door movably mounted with respect to a corresponding portion of said pet-doorway-defining frame means and of a size and shape such as to be movable between an open position and a fully closed, sealed position completely closing off and sealing the pet doorway opening defined by said petdoorway-defining frame means, said auxiliary sealing door and an adjacent portion of said pet-doorway-defining frame means being provided with controllably engageable and controllably disengageable, side-positioned, latching means for latching said auxiliary sealing door at one side thereof in said fully closed, sealed relationship, when desired; said mounting of said auxiliary sealing door being achieved by the provision of sidepositioned hinge means including two vertically separable mating parts comprising a hinge door part mounted along a corresponding side edge of said auxiliary sealing door and a hinge frame part carried by a corresponding side portion of said pet-doorwaydefining frame means, with said two mating hinge parts being effectively pivotally interconnected for rotation around a substantially vertical axis and being directly vertically separable, said hinge door part and said hinge frame part comprising corresponding male and female parts, with said male part being directly vertically insertible into said female part and being correspondingly oppositely directly vertically removable therefrom whenever it is desired to completely remove the aux-iliary sealing door from the adjacent side-positioned mounting portion of the pet-doorway-defining frame means.