My grandparents had a children’s book about a kitten that was always on the wrong side of the door – the title may have been something like that. It was a small book, maybe 4″ x 6″ inches, with a light blue cover and an oval in the center with a picture of a little girl and/or the kitten on a front step. I think the kitten was black and white. It would have been in the early ’70s that they had it, but I have no idea how old it was. I don’t remember it looking too old at that time.
Two Stories About Kate and Kitty, 1968, by Lee Priestley
http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2016/11/two-stories-about-kate-and-kitty.html
I had this as a kid. There were two stories in it, the one you describe (they solve it by rigging up a “doorbell” for the cat with a bell on a ribbon); and another in which they are moving to a new house and can’t find the kitten, and they arrive at the new house and discover she was asleep in one of the boxes. They find her by using the can-opener, which is the cat’s “alarm clock.”
Thank you so much! I too have been wanting to remember the name of this book. It was very special to me as a little girl! My neighbor, Cynthia, used to read it to me.
My cat was meowing to be let out and my husband went to let him out. He said to my cat that he was on the wrong side of the door. I suddenly remembered this book, and that I had looked for it a few years ago and couldn’t find anyone who remembered the title. So I looked again and HERE WE ALL ARE. I remembered about the bell, but forgot about the second story, probably because it was about a lost cat and that kind of story is traumatizing to me. Still at 53!