How to childproof with cats?
January 19, 2019 10:09 PM Subscribe
I have a steep staircase, an adventurous baby, and a chubby cat who can't jump. How the heck do I child-proof the stairs?
The baby is huge and athletic. He body-slams / dismantles / climbs over / shimmies under everything in his path. He's absolutely fearless, and endlessly busy (help me).
The cat is round & heavy (small frame, 13 pounds) with a timid, defeatist personality. She definitely can't jump over a gate- she can barely jump on/off the sofa. She won't go through a flap- she won't even nudge open a slightly ajar door at feeding time. Instead, she'll crouch sadly beside any obstacle- for hours!- rather than trying to manouevre around it.
The house has a steep flight of stairs. At the top, it meets the upstairs hallway at 90' with a narrow opening like a doorway. It's probably a bad idea for us to gate the top of the staircase itself, because then you'd have to open the gate, step down, then turn around on the stairs to close it behind you. This seems dangerous if carrying the baby, and risky for our elderly parents who don't have great balance. So I'm thinking we should put two gates across the hallway, one on either side of the stairs. That way people will be on flat ground when they deal with the gates. Cool.
At the bottom, the stairs make a right-angle turn into the living room, like this. Gating that part is doable too- I think we'll just use a giant multi-panel gate to create a little "pen" around the bottom of the stairs.
BUT the problem is the cat, who needs full access to the whole house. And if the gate has hole big enough to let the cat through, that hole is also big enough for the baby's adventurous head to get stuck in.
We can't be the first people to have this problem.
Any advice or product recommendations for us? Bonus points if products are available in Canada.
Thanks!
The baby is huge and athletic. He body-slams / dismantles / climbs over / shimmies under everything in his path. He's absolutely fearless, and endlessly busy (help me).
The cat is round & heavy (small frame, 13 pounds) with a timid, defeatist personality. She definitely can't jump over a gate- she can barely jump on/off the sofa. She won't go through a flap- she won't even nudge open a slightly ajar door at feeding time. Instead, she'll crouch sadly beside any obstacle- for hours!- rather than trying to manouevre around it.
The house has a steep flight of stairs. At the top, it meets the upstairs hallway at 90' with a narrow opening like a doorway. It's probably a bad idea for us to gate the top of the staircase itself, because then you'd have to open the gate, step down, then turn around on the stairs to close it behind you. This seems dangerous if carrying the baby, and risky for our elderly parents who don't have great balance. So I'm thinking we should put two gates across the hallway, one on either side of the stairs. That way people will be on flat ground when they deal with the gates. Cool.
At the bottom, the stairs make a right-angle turn into the living room, like this. Gating that part is doable too- I think we'll just use a giant multi-panel gate to create a little "pen" around the bottom of the stairs.
BUT the problem is the cat, who needs full access to the whole house. And if the gate has hole big enough to let the cat through, that hole is also big enough for the baby's adventurous head to get stuck in.
We can't be the first people to have this problem.
Any advice or product recommendations for us? Bonus points if products are available in Canada.
Thanks!
My third knew no bounds. He climbed out of his crib and would land on the ground with a thud and a laugh. He was free!
We did not have to keep both gates closed at all times. If he was downstairs, the top of the stairs gate could be open. Vice versa if he was upstairs. If the cat has to go upstairs when the bottom gate is closed, cat can sit there waiting to be noticed or meow. Then you open gate or lift cat over gate.
Or, what Toddles said. Duel litter setup
posted by AugustWest at 10:32 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
We did not have to keep both gates closed at all times. If he was downstairs, the top of the stairs gate could be open. Vice versa if he was upstairs. If the cat has to go upstairs when the bottom gate is closed, cat can sit there waiting to be noticed or meow. Then you open gate or lift cat over gate.
Or, what Toddles said. Duel litter setup
posted by AugustWest at 10:32 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: In order not to complicate my question I left out the third personality:
I have another cat, who's a former houdini-esque acrobat but now elderly. He WILL try to jump over any gate, but he's 16 and klutzy so making several acrobatic jumps a day at the top of a steep staircase isn't safe. He's slim. And before trying to jump over a gate, he'll happily try to squeeze through or under- so if there's a passage through the gate he'll take that rather than leaping. But he will not be contained; if the gate isn't permeable, he's going over, which really isn't ideal.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:37 PM on January 19, 2019
I have another cat, who's a former houdini-esque acrobat but now elderly. He WILL try to jump over any gate, but he's 16 and klutzy so making several acrobatic jumps a day at the top of a steep staircase isn't safe. He's slim. And before trying to jump over a gate, he'll happily try to squeeze through or under- so if there's a passage through the gate he'll take that rather than leaping. But he will not be contained; if the gate isn't permeable, he's going over, which really isn't ideal.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:37 PM on January 19, 2019
I really like babydan retractable gates... you can make them so the cat can go under. They’ve come in handy in terms of crowd control until now and my kids are 2.5 and 3.5 and very physical!
posted by catspajammies at 12:09 AM on January 20, 2019
posted by catspajammies at 12:09 AM on January 20, 2019
Install the baby gate a few inches above the floor so the cat can get through (they need less space than you might think) but baby can’t get his head stuck.
I also really don’t think that getting his head stuck in a baby gate with a cat door should be a big concern.
posted by amro at 5:09 AM on January 20, 2019
I also really don’t think that getting his head stuck in a baby gate with a cat door should be a big concern.
posted by amro at 5:09 AM on January 20, 2019
My second was a really thick, strong, adventurous baby. He would climb over stair gates to the point where it was dangerous for us to have one at the top of the stairs, because we were afraid he would climb over it and plop down the stairs. So we taught him to go up and down stairs pretty young. It would drive my mom batshit crazy to watch him do it. But he crawled up and shimmied down on his belly feet first. I say shimmy I mean, he treated them like a slide. It may be a good idea to just watch him and help him maneuver the stairs for a few weeks and see if that seems more safe than a baby gate he can climb over.
posted by katypickle at 6:10 AM on January 20, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by katypickle at 6:10 AM on January 20, 2019 [4 favorites]
We did similarly to snickerdoodle - no gating of the actual stairs, but we gated off the living room, dining room and kitchen to make one big "suite" that the baby could roam in. There also was a separate gate between living and dining when the baby was especially destructive which we've since removed to allow us to gate him into the living room if needed. Our baby sounds similar in temperament to yours and this has worked. He only gets to the foot of the stairs when we're watching.
posted by peacheater at 6:17 AM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by peacheater at 6:17 AM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
The cat is round & heavy (small frame, 13 pounds) with a timid, defeatist personality. She definitely can't jump over a gate- she can barely jump on/off the sofa.
This isn't an immediate solution, but have you considered getting your cat to a lower weight, such that she would be able to leap over a gate? This has the auxiliary benefits of (a) making your cat happier/healthier and (b) likely reducing your future vet bills as she ages.
I think the best solution would be gate(s) that are (a) too high/sturdy for your toddler to pass, (b) low enough for your cat to clear once she is more fit, and (c) a little above the floor, so your older cat can squeeze by.
We used a Retract-a-Gate with our dog, and found that it was sturdy enough to keep a 60lb labrador and most adult humans out [until we showed the humans how to use it, of course]. Expensive but worthwhile in my opinion. It can be mounted at any height, so it would be easy to leave a few inches of clearance for elderly cat.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 8:21 AM on January 20, 2019
This isn't an immediate solution, but have you considered getting your cat to a lower weight, such that she would be able to leap over a gate? This has the auxiliary benefits of (a) making your cat happier/healthier and (b) likely reducing your future vet bills as she ages.
I think the best solution would be gate(s) that are (a) too high/sturdy for your toddler to pass, (b) low enough for your cat to clear once she is more fit, and (c) a little above the floor, so your older cat can squeeze by.
We used a Retract-a-Gate with our dog, and found that it was sturdy enough to keep a 60lb labrador and most adult humans out [until we showed the humans how to use it, of course]. Expensive but worthwhile in my opinion. It can be mounted at any height, so it would be easy to leave a few inches of clearance for elderly cat.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 8:21 AM on January 20, 2019
We have this gate at the top and bottom of our stairs. At the bottom the gap on the side of the gate is wide enough that our cat can just walk through. At the top we need to keep the gate open and we just stay extra vigilant that our kid won't try to crawl through it.
Pet gate link
One thing that I read about people doing with this particular gate is to just saw through one of the bars in the pet door. Then you can keep the gate permanently closed (heavily taped shut) and the cat can hopefully fit through that smaller gap but a kid's head will be too big.
Our landing is only one step before the landing, but we've had no issues having the one at the bottom of the stairs be on the landing from the post to the wall. Your kid may be different though.
posted by cali59 at 6:08 AM on January 21, 2019
Pet gate link
One thing that I read about people doing with this particular gate is to just saw through one of the bars in the pet door. Then you can keep the gate permanently closed (heavily taped shut) and the cat can hopefully fit through that smaller gap but a kid's head will be too big.
Our landing is only one step before the landing, but we've had no issues having the one at the bottom of the stairs be on the landing from the post to the wall. Your kid may be different though.
posted by cali59 at 6:08 AM on January 21, 2019
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I too have an adventurous and dangerously strong baby. This is the only solution I can think of.
posted by Toddles at 10:25 PM on January 19, 2019 [13 favorites]