Safer Stairs
Our Kung Fu Panda turns 9 months on Saturday, and we're making his environment safer as it becomes necessary. He discovered the stairs two weeks ago, and has climbed onto the landing and up one step as I shadowed him to "spot" him. He was so excited! However, it's important he doesn't attempt this without supervision, so we knew it was time for a baby gate.
After checking out the multiple varieties of gate in the local Babies R Us, we selected one that didn't need to be wall-mounted but remained in place due to pressure. It took longer than we might have expected for The Gryphon to install them, but before long, we had gates at the top and bottom to keep our little explorer from adventuring on his own.
Our kitty, Luke, was distressed with the new obstacles and meowed piteously when we closed them both. While he could, theoretically, hop over them like he has over the movable baby gate we use for doorways, I believe the extra height of the stairs makes it too much of a challenge. After some thinking, The Gryphon devised a possible solution, placing some boxes next to the railing so that Luke could slip through and climb down. But several attempts to show this to him resulted in no spark going off in his feline brain. Rather, he meowed again with distress and ran back up the stairs.
Finally, we reached a tentative solution. We'll keep the upstairs gate open when we're downstairs with KFP and will only close the bottom gate when he's actively playing on the floor. That way, the cat can come and go more or less as he likes. We'll also try to make certain that Luke is already upstairs before we close the upper gate, so that he has access to his food and litter box in the master bedroom.
My next short-term goal is:
So far, this has not been a problem, since KFP has shown no interest in the cabinet where they're kept and we don't allow him to play near there. Still, I will feel better when we move the medicines.
Moral:
Little explorers get very excited when they make a new discovery.
After checking out the multiple varieties of gate in the local Babies R Us, we selected one that didn't need to be wall-mounted but remained in place due to pressure. It took longer than we might have expected for The Gryphon to install them, but before long, we had gates at the top and bottom to keep our little explorer from adventuring on his own.
Our kitty, Luke, was distressed with the new obstacles and meowed piteously when we closed them both. While he could, theoretically, hop over them like he has over the movable baby gate we use for doorways, I believe the extra height of the stairs makes it too much of a challenge. After some thinking, The Gryphon devised a possible solution, placing some boxes next to the railing so that Luke could slip through and climb down. But several attempts to show this to him resulted in no spark going off in his feline brain. Rather, he meowed again with distress and ran back up the stairs.
Finally, we reached a tentative solution. We'll keep the upstairs gate open when we're downstairs with KFP and will only close the bottom gate when he's actively playing on the floor. That way, the cat can come and go more or less as he likes. We'll also try to make certain that Luke is already upstairs before we close the upper gate, so that he has access to his food and litter box in the master bedroom.
My next short-term goal is:
- Short-term Goal: Move medicines into higher cabinet or a child-proof locked box.
So far, this has not been a problem, since KFP has shown no interest in the cabinet where they're kept and we don't allow him to play near there. Still, I will feel better when we move the medicines.
Moral:
Little explorers get very excited when they make a new discovery.