New novel hopeful

[Silver]

Here are some thoughts (you wanted honest...):

Regarding your first point.
How should this character know why the internet is still working when the world has basically gone to shit?  
It works, and that is all he knows.

Regarding your second point.
He wants to bring the cat with him, because honestly what else is there?  To abandon the cat?  Is there any assurance that the cat can survive on its own?  As a reader, you must ask yourselves as many questions in relation to any situation as the writer does in writing what he does.  Not all the answers can be provided to you, and most times as a reader one must figure it out along the journey through the book

Regarding your third point.
The clawing at the door was the front door.  The cloth door is the bedroom door.

Regarding your fourth point.
When I speak to my cat, I speak to her.  Mouthing is a natural retention of that, even if it is silent.

Regarding your fifth point.
There was no need for him to stick around.  He already knew what was out there was dangerous.  Thus the haste.  He was not sticking around to die.

I am not trying to write stupid characterizations and stupid scenes that people expect. Only a stupid character in a regular novel would stick around to check out the danger. I do not need my readers screaming at my characters to not be so dumb. My characters are a reflection of what humanity should be, not of what brainless readers want.