Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 Hi, everyone! For those of you with pets, how do you handle the safety gate issue? I have gates up to keep my toddler in the kitchen/living room area. That is where we keep our cats' food and litter box. They are physically able to jump over the gates, and one even has a table next to it for them to jump on, but they stand in front of the gates looking confused. I don't want to move the food and litter box because they're in the only place on the first floor that's not carpeted. What have other people done about this? Thanks! Sheri Mommy to Heather Joy 9/28/00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 so far we have not even put up the safety gate that we bought (and our daughter is 12 months now) so we havent had a problem with it, but the one that we bought has a button that attaches to the wall that " remotely " opens the gate so if our cats would need to go through and we were in the room we could easily open it without having to take it down. Otherwise, you could put a table or stool or something on both sides of the gate so that they have easier access over it. , Sheri Slattery <sheri@s...> wrote: > Hi, everyone! > > For those of you with pets, how do you handle the safety gate issue? I > have gates up to keep my toddler in the kitchen/living room area. That > is where we keep our cats' food and litter box. They are physically > able to jump over the gates, and one even has a table next to it for > them to jump on, but they stand in front of the gates looking confused. > I don't want to move the food and litter box because they're in the only > place on the first floor that's not carpeted. > > What have other people done about this? Thanks! > > Sheri > Mommy to Heather Joy 9/28/00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 Our cats were confused at first too, but eventually they got it. If you have one that looks like he's not going to get it, you could try (if it's not a hardward mounted gate, just pressure mounted) raising it off the floor enough for a cat to squeeze under but not a toddler? Not sure if the official safety rules are violated this way, but it's worked for me. However, my toddler is only 12 mos old. Sheri Slattery [sheri] Tuesday, March 19, 2002 6:42 AM Question about safety gates Hi, everyone! For those of you with pets, how do you handle the safety gate issue? I have gates up to keep my toddler in the kitchen/living room area. That is where we keep our cats' food and litter box. They are physically able to jump over the gates, and one even has a table next to it for them to jump on, but they stand in front of the gates looking confused. I don't want to move the food and litter box because they're in the only place on the first floor that's not carpeted. What have other people done about this? Thanks! Sheri Mommy to Heather Joy 9/28/00 For more information about vegetarianism, please visit the VRG website at http://www.vrg.org and for materials especially useful for families go to http://www.vrg.org/family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 20, 2002 Report Share Posted March 20, 2002 I think cats are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. If your cat(s) get hungry, thirsty, or have to use the bathroom, they know where the food and box are, right? if they know, then they'll get there! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports./ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 21, 2002 Report Share Posted March 21, 2002 Thanks for all the suggestions! Three of our cats figured out how to jump over the gates and/or use the table as a stepladder. I had to show the fourth how to do it. I " jumped " him over it and now he's sailing over it with no problems! It's kind of cute to watch! > leena wrote: > " You could try (if it's not a hardward mounted gate, just pressure mounted) raising it off the floor enough for a cat to squeeze under but not a toddler? Not sure if the official safety rules are violated this way, but it's worked for me. " Wow. I hadn't thought about that. That's a good suggestion. OTOH, it would make it hard for us to walk over. Right now, we just leave the gates up and walk over them. > Lindsay Shields wrote: > " I think cats are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. " LOL Absolutely. They're smarter than some people I know. ;-) Sheri Mommy to vegan Heather Joy 9/28/00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 21, 2002 Report Share Posted March 21, 2002 I'm a little late chiming in on this (running behind in life in general), but we had a cat who only had three legs. He was missing a back leg and his tail due to an encounter with a forklift when he was just a little kitten. We ended up bringing him home the same month that we brought my daughter home, they we born pretty close to the same week. All of our safety gates had an approximately 4 " section cut out of the lower corner of one side for the cat to get through. This cat couldn't jump over the gate and our daughter was too active for us to put anything next to the gate that she might use to climb. Other than the limited jumping ability the cat managed just fine though. Phil Welsher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 21, 2002 Report Share Posted March 21, 2002 Just my thoughts... I am pretty much anti-safety gate myself. They seem to cause more of a problem and I've seen several older toddlers get hurt on them. We have a cat and we have stairs and I've never safety gated the stairs or the litter box/cat food. My son is a little over 2 yrs old. He learned to go up and down stairs as soon as he could crawl and he has never bothered the litter box. He has at different points in his life played with the dry cat food (it is vegan), but most of the time he helps me feed and water the cat and has done this since he could walk. Now that he is pretty much diaper-free he is very interested in the cat box and what the cat does there, etc. but so far he has never messed with it...just helps me by flushing the toilet when I dump the cat poop in. My cat is older and although he does jump I can't imagine expecting him to jump to get to his food and water and litter box. I was at a friend's house yesterday and a three year old was leaning against a safety gate blocking the stairs and the gate fell and so did the child. He wasn't hurt, but I've seen this time and time again. Of course, I've also see kids and adults fall down stairs and I've never seen anyone hurt enough to go to the hospital. I've noticed the kids that fall down stairs tend to be kids who don't have stairs in their house or kids who have not been 'allowed' to learn about stairs because they were always blocked off. My neighbor has four kids and she is getting ready to move so things are crazy at her house. Her four year old forgot to latch the safety gate and her one year old fell down the length of her stairs. The one year old was fine, the mother was a wreck and so was the four you old (racked with guilt). None of this means that I think it is cruel to cats to have a safety gate between them and their food/toilet. I also completely understand parents who safety gate their stairs. This is just my comfort level and my experience. I personally think the younger you can get children involved and up close to taking care of others (humans and non-human animals) the better for them. I wouldn't want to gate my son off from this important part of my cats life. Linda Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards® http://movies./ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 22, 2002 Report Share Posted March 22, 2002 We did the same >I'm a little late chiming in on this (running behind in life in general), >but >we had a cat who only had three legs. He was missing a back leg and his >tail >due to an encounter with a forklift when he was just a little kitten. >We ended up bringing him home the same month that we brought my daughter >home, they we born pretty close to the same week. >All of our safety gates had an approximately 4 " section cut out of the >lower >corner of one side for the cat to get through. This cat couldn't jump over >the gate and our daughter was too active for us to put anything next to the >gate that she might use to climb. >Other than the limited jumping ability the cat managed just fine though. > >Phil Welsher > > > >For more information about vegetarianism, please visit the VRG website at >http://www.vrg.org and for materials especially useful for families go to >http://www.vrg.org/family. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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