How to let my cat poop but keep the baby out of it?

justonegirl — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:39:40 -0800

Has anyone found a doorway gate that would allow a cat to pass through but keep a baby/toddler out? Our cat's litterbox is in our laundry room, and we've always had the door open so he can come and go. Now that our son is crawling, we need to block this room off so the kid can't play in the litterbox. However, we have a few obstacles:

1. The cat may not be able to jump over a regular baby gate (he's in decent shape, but 12 years old).

2. We rent our house, so we can't cut into the room door to make a pet door.

3. There really isn't anywhere else to keep the litter box.

Has anyone found any kind of solution to this? I've searched One Step Ahead and the websites of many gate manufacturers but haven't found anything that will work. Thanks in advance!

Whatr can I do to make the boiler & furnace inaccessible to my cats?

tastybrains — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:07:58 -0800

I'm looking for suggestions as to what I can do to keep the boiler & furnace in my house inaccessible to our cats, without closing up the actual room they are in. The boiler has some fluffy insulation around it that I can completely imagine my cats having a ball with. They are not bright. We've just bought a house and are in the process of sprucing & fixing some things up before we move in. There is a fairly large laundry/utility room where the boiler & furnace are located. We've decided that this room would be the best place for the litterbox, because the bathrooms are too small and there really aren't any other nooks that are out of the way.

However, I am really concerned about my cats vs. the boiler. It is partially wrapped in some fluffy insulation, and my cats love to claw and play with things with interesting textures. I'd like to find some way that is fairly inexpensive (<$200 would be ideal) and fairly easy to implement, to keep them from being able to access it.

One thought was baby gates, but I don't know if they can be stacked that high. I also thought of constructing something out of chicken wire, but I don't really know if that's the best way either.

What would you do?

Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with babygate

How to let my cat poop but keep the baby out of it?

Whatr can I do to make the boiler & furnace inaccessible to my cats?