Patent ID: 8590182

Claim:
A method for reminding an occupant of a dwelling to facilitate re-entry of a pet having previously exited the dwelling, the method comprising: (a) hanging a timer device at an indoor position hanging from a handle carrying portion of a door latching mechanism inside the dwelling on an interior side of an exterior door of the dwelling, and providing input to the timer device to mark a starting point from which an interval of time is to elapse before the timer provides an indication that the interval of time has expired; (b) after having previously let the pet out of the dwelling through the exterior door at which the timer device was hung in step (a), visually recognizing a status of the timer device's position at the exterior door as a visual reminder of an outdoor status of the pet; (c) recognizing an alarm signal emitted by the timer device upon expiry of the interval of time as a reminder to let the pet back inside the dwelling; and (d) in response to the alarm, manually opening the exterior door at which the timer device was hung in step (a) and allowing re-entry of the pet into the dwelling through said exterior door; wherein step (a) comprises hanging the timer device in an orientation in which an outdoor status indicator on a respective side of the timer device is in a viewable condition facing away from the exterior door and an indoor status indicator on an opposing side of the timer device is in a concealed position facing toward the exterior door, step (b) comprises visually recognizing the orientation of the timer device and the resulting viewable condition of the outdoor status indicator as the reminder of the outdoor status of the pet, and step (d) comprises removing the timer device from the handle carrying portion of the door latching mechanism, flipping the timer device around, and re-hanging the timer device from the handle carrying portion of the door latching mechanism in another orientation in which the outdoor status indicator is in the concealed condition facing toward the exterior door and the indoor status indicator on the opposing side of the timer devices is in the viewable condition facing away from the exterior door.