martha@geowhiz.UUCP (Martha Savage) (01/15/86)
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Our 7 month-old son is getting close to crawling, and we're
trying to babyproof our house. The major problem is where
to put the cat food and litter box so the cat can get to
it but the baby can't, and so he can't get hurt from trying to
get to it. We rent an apartment, so structural change
to the building is ruled out. If the kitty litter is behind
a closed door, does that cause problems for the cat--what
happens if you go out and forget to open the door so the cat
can get to it?
I'm interested in suggestions and experiences. Please mail
them to me and if there's sufficient interest I'll summarize
to the net.
Thanks in advance for your help.
--
Martha Kane Savage
U. Wisc. Dept. Geology and Geophysics
{ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!geowhiz!marthasuze@terak.UUCP (Suzanne Barnett) (01/23/86)
> Our 7 month-old son is getting close to crawling, and we're > trying to babyproof our house. The major problem is where > to put the cat food and litter box so the cat can get to > it but the baby can't, and so he can't get hurt from trying to > get to it. We rent an apartment, so structural change > to the building is ruled out. If the kitty litter is behind One option is buying a door the same size as an existing door in your apartment, installing a pet door in it and replacing the apartment's door with your door (until you move, then you can replace your door with the apartment's door. Another simple solution is to put the pet food and litter box some place high enough that your son cannot get to them. If you do this, consider that he is going to be able to do some climbing. Good luck! -- Suzanne Barnett-Scott uucp: ...{decvax,ihnp4,noao,savax,seismo}!terak!suze CalComp/Sanders Display Products Division 14151 N 76th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 (602) 998-4800
rbc@houxu.UUCP (R.CONNAGHAN) (01/27/86)
I missed the original posting but here's what we did. Put the cats food and litter in a room (i.e. the bathroom) and install the expanding-type child-guard gate. Our cats had no problem jumping over the gate. They in fact had no trouble jumping over a four foot gate I built, but thats another story. What we all need is a basement.. -- Robert Connaghan WE 32100 Microprocessor Group AT&T Information System - Holmdel, N.J. houxu!rbc
martha@geowhiz.UUCP (Martha Savage) (02/10/86)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Thank you all for your helpful suggestions about babyproofing kittylitter. As promised, here is a summary of suggestions. First, I have just a couple of comments. Some of the solutions I think are more dangerous than the problem, and I'd like to point them out in case others are using them and haven't thought about it. Several people suggested the old style collapsible gates with large holes in them. But, they were taken off the market because some babies had died from getting their heads stuck in them. Another idea was keeping the litter in the basement, but then again one faces the problem of letting the cat in the basement without letting the baby near the steps. The solution I've adopted is to keep the litter in the bathroom and get a barrier for the door that the cat can jump over. This is useful for the other kid I babysit. My own son has decided that he doesn't really want to learn to crawl, and spends most of his time either getting other people to lend him their fingers to walk with or in his walker, so we don't have much trouble keeping him out of the bathroom. Other solutions: I have a cat box that is enclosed on all sides and has a roof. Cat goes in through a opening on one side only. A seven month old isnt clever enough to turn the box. Angle it so that there is enough space between a corner and the opening so kitty can get in. (I mean have the opening face a corner of the room) corner|------- I hope this makes sense. The opening is facing the | /\ corner of the room so kitty will have to be an acrobat. | / \ Also, you can consider putting it on a table in |/box \ a room large enough for that (Friends of mine had one |\ / in the kitchen on a card table). Hopefully, the kid | \ / will develop a sense of aesthetics by the time s/he (?) | \/ is big enough to reach. Hollering "NO!!!!" helps E ***** From: Karen Isaacson <uwvax!ihnp4!sdcrdcf!randvax!karen> Well, this may be a rather strange solution, and may not be applicable to your situation, but I'll let you know what we did. We had to move the cat's bowl & litter box because our dog thought they were both full of good stuff for dogs to eat. (This is my husband's dog, but that's another story entirely.) We ended up putting the box & bowl on a high shelf (5 or 6 feet up, actually) right next to the "cat tree" (one of those carpeted poles with carpeted shelves, etc.) Works pretty well - cat figured it out with no problem, doesn't dump stuff off, etc. K. >From ihnp4!trwrb!trwrba!ljp Sun Jan 19 04:13:41 1986 remote from uwvax From: uwvax!ihnp4!trwrb!trwrba!ljp I don't have any practical experience with this problem (I have two cats but no children) so this might turn out to be totally unworkable, but here's an idea... Have you considered putting the litter box on a platform? If you have room for it, you might want to try getting a table high enough off the floor that the baby can't reach, low enough that the cat can leap onto it easily, and large enough to accomodate the litter box plus a space onto which the cat can land comfortably. If it turns out that your cat can't leap onto the table easily, you can try providing it with a stepping-stone (chair, lower table, whatever) far enough away that the baby can't use it to climb to the table. Good luck! -- Laura Pearlman {ihnp4,hplabs,ucbvax}!trwrb!ljp From: uwvax!ihnp4!daemen!wersan (John Slasher Wersan III) How about putting a child baracade across an open door, the cat can get through, but the child can't. We use this method to keep our dog away from the cats box. From: uwvax!ihnp4!tektronix!athena!charliem Return-Path: <charliem@athena> We put all that stuff on a table -- old junky worktable in the laundry room. (Yuck -- want another cat? :-)) You do have to remember to leave the laundry room door open so the cat can get in. Soon, the baby will be able to get to the cat. Is the cat smart enough to avoid the baby, or dumb enough not to mind having hair and tail pulled? We once had to get rid of an otherwise adorable cat that sat there and tried to scratch the baby in the eye instead of staying out of the baby's way. -- Charlie Mills ..{ucbvax,decvax,uw-beaver,hplabs,ihnp4,allegra}!tektronix!athena!charliem From: uwvax!topaz!lll-crg!hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!entropy!fetrow The classic solution (which doesn't always work) is putting the litterpan in the tub. Obviously this is inconvenient. Almost as inconvenient is doublestopping a door to the closet so it is open enough for cat, too closed for baby and can't move (the triangular rubber doorstops are best). If you can talk them into letting you put up a temporary door under the sink which you have put a cat-door in; that works O.K. Obviously this must be a VERY small door so there is no way the baby can get its head stuck. An interior catdoor works but I doubt they'd let you do that to, say the bathroom. Finally you can put the pan UP, like the top of a bookcase. This tends to be messy. It goes without saying that a way to keep the pan from tipping is a real good idea. One last thing is there are covered pans on the market BUT the cat usually doesn't like these as much. -Good luck Dave Fetrow From: <uwvax!seismo!umcp-cs!aplcen!uucp> Myabe you could get a folding gate of the sort that the cat could slip through the holes but the baby couldn't get through. jcpatilla From: suze@terak.UUCP (Suzanne Barnett) One option is buying a door the same size as an existing door in your apartment, installing a pet door in it and replacing the apartment's door with your door (until you move, then you can replace your door with the apartment's door. Another simple solution is to put the pet food and litter box some place high enough that your son cannot get to them. If you do this, consider that he is going to be able to do some climbing. Good luck! -- Suzanne Barnett-Scott uucp: ...{decvax,ihnp4,noao,savax,seismo}!terak!suze CalComp/Sanders Display Products Division 14151 N 76th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 (602) 998-4800 From: uwvax!topaz!ut-sally!ut-ngp!cgeiger (Charles S. Geiger, Esq.) Would putting the litterbox in the bathtub help? This would also make it easier to clean up stray litter that the cat kicks out: just wash it down the drain. Hope this helps. charles s. geiger wage slave u. of texas Get a Very Large Box and put the litter (in its container) inside on the bottom. Cut off the top, if any, so you can reach inside to "take care of business" (change the litter). Cut a cat-sized (small) hole in the box somewhere to serve as a door. The cat will soon figure it out (it has lots of motivation), but the kid won't be interested. It worked for us. It also helps contain the mess, except that our cats like to jump in and out of the box (40" high) instead of using the door. Oh well. Alan Silverstein, Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Systems Division, Colorado {ihnp4 | hplabs}!hpfcla!ajs, 303-226-3800 x3053, N 40 31'31" W 105 00'43" From: uwvax!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccivax!acj (Al Jones) We solved this problem by putting the litter box in the powder room and then putting a gate hook on the door up well out of the reach of kids. I intalled the hook on the outside of the door frame, and the eye on the inside of the door. The hook is used to hold the door OPEN! These hooks are about six inches long - enough room for a fat cat to get through, but NOT enough room for a crawling baby to get through. It also keeps baby from either entering the room OR closing the door so that kitty cannot use the facilities. I installed this about 5 1/2 years ago when #1 son began crawling (at 4 1/2 months). It is still in use as I now have a very active 10 month old. Al Jones acj@ccivax Computer Consoles, Inc Rochester, NY -- Martha Kane Savage U. Wisc. Dept. Geology and Geophysics {ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!geowhiz!martha