# Cat safety issue!



## ferness (Jan 12, 2011)

Can anyone help? Our cat currently has free access to the whole house and normally sleeps in our bedroom but goes in and out of the cat flap in the kitchen at night. We have been advised to consider how we would prevent him from accessing the child's bedroom when they are sleeping due to risk of suffocation and disease. 

I'm thinking that we won't be shutting the childs room door fully so that we can hear them, (and I didnt like my door shut when i was young)! Due to the layout of our (terraced) house the only options we can think of are:
1. some sort of cat proof barrier on the child's room and this may present its own safety issues even if such a thing existed. 
2. Shutting the cat in the kitchen at night - he will go berserk scratching at the door to get to us!

Has anyone had this problem and how did you solve it?!


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## ritzi (Feb 18, 2006)

we couldn't shut our cats downstairs as they yelled all night, so opted to shut the LOs bedroom door. 

its never bothered them as they know the cats will climb on their beds if we don't shut the door

3 years in and they both now shut the door in their sleep on the way to the loo   

perhaps consider shutting the door and using a baby intercom? 

sorry prob not what you wanted to hear


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## Anjelissa (Jan 11, 2007)

Hi ferness,

I agree with ritzi, we have always shut our little man's door (he came to us at 11 months and is now 3 years old). His FC did that right from when he was in his own room too prior to 11 months.

We still have a baby monitor now in the living room just so we can hear him better if there is any problem and we always check him once before we go to bed to cover him back up etc (he's never disturbed by us opening and closing his door in the night to check him, even if he stirs he just settles right back down).

Our little lady (Millie the cat) has always slept in our room and we just figured that her calm contented world was upset enough by the sudden appearance of a little person yelling, chasing and trying to 'cuddle' her that we didn't want to change her routine of sleeping in with us. 

The only problem I could see is if your lo is a bit younger than a year and you are planning on them being in with you for a while first? 

Another pointer for you, we got wooden stairgates and my DH has taken a bit out from one of the bars creating a little (cat sized) square in one corner of both upstairs and downstairs gate. He put a horizontal piece of wood across where it was cut to make it squared off and safe (if you can imagine what I mean). It's too small to cause our little man any bother. 
This way Millie has a 'bolt hole' escape route at all times when little man is on a mission to 'cuddle' her, plus she is never then trapped anywhere.
It's a perfect solution to another cat/child problem.

I have to say before we were matched with our little man, we had always planned to have our child's door open at night and hadn't even considered having it closed (so I know how you feel), but as his FC had always done this and we wanted to keep things as normal as possible for him when he moved in we did the same. Now I couldn't imagine it being open, I'd feel we would have to tiptoe around constantly!
Baby monitors are pretty sensitive and as I say we still use ours now just for our reassurance really rather than his benefit as he's always fine and we know we can hear him without it.

I'm sure you'll find a way around it   

Anj x


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## bambinolove (Jan 4, 2010)

Hi,


We have the same issue with our dog (spoilt rotten and sleeps by my feet!). We were planning on th intercom and door closed route too.


Hope that helps


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

We're planning on the intercom and closed door option, too.    We have four cats, and we already close them out of our bedroom at night, having discovered by accident how much better we sleep!


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## Miny Moo (Jan 13, 2011)

Just wanted to say that our son was used to having his door open with the landing light on when he came to us, he needed to be able to hear us downstairs and would have totally freaked if we had closed the door on him, so you do need to take that into consideration just incase.


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## Anjelissa (Jan 11, 2007)

Good point Miny Moo, that may put a spanner in the works for a closed door option, especially in the early days.
Maybe you need to have a plan 'A' and 'B' ferness until you know what your lo's existing routine consists of.

There's so much to think about isn't there!

Anj x


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## KG81 (Oct 21, 2009)

Hi
We've got stairgates at the top of the stairs and our cat can't jump over it.


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## ferness (Jan 12, 2011)

Thanks so much for all the replies. I think we will need a plan B in case the closed door/intercom is not an option for us (although it is good to know that might be ok). I think the social worker will want us to have an alternative, so if anyone has any other ideas about keeping cats out of LO's bedroom I would be very grateful! 

You are right Anjelissa, there is so much to think about - and we haven't even started the health and safety form yet!!


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## Ruthiebabe (Dec 15, 2003)

We've a cat and a dog. We've had to do some work with the dog and the kids re- dominance. Cats though you can't train, so maybe bite the bullet now and buy some earplugs and start sleeping them in the kitchen now?? Not being able to sleep because of cats is the last thing you will need to worrying about during the early stages of placement.


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## Dame Edna (May 17, 2007)

What happens if the cats grow thumbs, like they do in that advert .....

No one thought of that did they


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

It gives me nightmares, Dame Edna.... ggg

They'd take over the world.... if they weren't so indolent....!


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## peacelily (Feb 24, 2006)

I'm kind of inclined to agree with Ruthiebabe...but then we have a dog not a cat    we put a gate on our son's bedroom door initially to keep our dog out (though it was quite useful to keep him in once he moved into a bed!!).  The dog's favourite place to sleep now is our son's bed, but I always make sure he's out of there when we go to bed (however much I trust him, he's still an animal - and it's not worth taking the risk).  And whilst our son's bedroom door used to be closed, he now insists on it open and a nightlight on in the hall, so closed doors may not be an option   

Peacelily xx


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## Arrows (Nov 9, 2008)

We were asked about that too as our cat has almost always slept in with us. We have a safety-gate at the bottom of the stairs as well as the top and tbh our cat doesn't much like jumping over them. On the other hand but our potential LO is used to sleeping in the dark so closing the door hopefully won't be a problem and we've been given a really good baby monitor, though our walls are thin enough to hear him even without it.
Other options include a mesh that vecros in place across the door, a cat net to go across a cot if he's younger or a mosquito style net -you can get princess/prince style ones- if a little older. you could put a catch on that allows the door to be a little open but not wide enough for a cat to get in. 
Don't worry too much -lots of options


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## someday (Sep 11, 2008)

We have a cat who also has free roam of the house. When the SW did the pet assessment on her she didn't seem too bothered about it. She asked where she sleeps and it is generally in the living room. TBH I hadn't thought about not being able to close the children's bedroom door. She rarely comes upstairs at night anyway and if she does she just walks around. I really don't see her being a risk. My only worry is if we are matched with a child with a cat allergy we would have to re-home her. This would break my heart but the child comes first.


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## Arrows (Nov 9, 2008)

Someday, we have been asked the same thing -we have a wonderful home lined up for her if our LO is allergic. Again, like yourselves it would break our hearts and is something we hope and pray never to have to do but still something that has to be thought about.


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## someday (Sep 11, 2008)

sadly we don't have a home for her yet so I really hope it doesn't happen. We have only had her since last Jan and she was re-homed then as her owner died. The poor thing is like a child up for adoption.


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## Billybeans (Jun 16, 2012)

Have you thought about the possibilities of having the door open slightly but perhaps with a doorstop?  don't think most cats would be able to push open a door that was wedged by a door stop. Then the door will be slightly open but not open enough for the cat to get through. Probably wouldn't work for a dog but might work for a cat.
xx


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## Billybeans (Jun 16, 2012)

That sounds horrific to me. Poor cats!


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## goldbunny (Mar 26, 2012)

there is a plus side to shutting your cat in a kitchen or other room overnight and that is that if there's a fire, say your smoke alarms all go off and you have to get out, well you know where the cat is. i couldn't bear it if we had to climb out an upstairs window but had no idea where the cat was, you can't rely on them hiding in an easily accessible place and you can't roam the house to look for them either. our cat sleeps in the utility room, if need be i could throw a key down to a neighbour or the fire brigade and they could get her out, or i could get down then go around and let her out. i couldn't bear to leave her behind if she'd hidden under a bed or something at night and there was an emergency. get in the habit of putting the cat away they will get used to it and then you have peace of mind. imagine reentering a smoke-filled then cleared house and having to search for the cat not knowing if it survived! can't bear the idea.


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## smudgerbabe (Sep 16, 2011)

Cats are naturally semi-nocturnal and happy to go out at night - mine have happily been shut in the kitchen before in my last house (with access to the cat flap) and will have to again in this house when I adopt. They may be a bit peeved at first (no cat likes a shut door!!) and may scratch for a bit but they very soon learn a new routine. Mine have had to adapt to various new routines and they've always been fine with it. 

As long as there's food, water, a bed, shelter, cuddles, something to chase around, and something to scratch/ruin they'll be happy!! 

Oh on the flip side my niece and nephew (6) got 2 kittens and the kittens have always slept on their bed at night.


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

We're doing well with our new two year old and our four cats.  'Head cat' won't let him out of her sight, and lets him gently stroke her and tell her off if she touches 'his stuff'.  Others are mostly hiding or observing from a distance.  We've found that the stair gate on his bedroom door keeps them out - they don't like the metal bars and can't get a good footing for jumping over.

That's just our experience!


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