15 month old baby rough with cats

[Alke]

Looking for some wisdom here- baby absolutely loves our 2 cats. They are very understandably not so keen on him, he's quite rough. One of the cats just doesn't go anywhere near him so that's fine, but the other is a bit lazy and will sit/ sleep within his reach. He will grab his tail/ big handfuls of fur, and the poor cat just tolerates it for a while then usually runs off but a couple of times now has scratched his arm. Obviously trying to explain/ demonstrate 'being gentle' but it's very much going over his head atm. Any advice to avoid cat and baby getting hurt?

Keep them separate at all times until you can have short sessions where you are able to very closely supervise and model touching the cat gently? I had to do this with my youngest and our dog, he went through a phase of being a bit rough with her and "patting" her hard. I moved him away from the dog and told him no. Then showed him gentle stroking and moved his arm on the dog gently so he felt the amount of pressure that was acceptable to her. Now he is very gentle and can understand the dog doesn't like being played with roughly. They are never together alone and the dog is only out of her bed when he's there and I am able to watch and be next to them both. It's not fair on the dog and it's too much of a risk even though they seem to love each other now!

Oh and always have somewhere the cat can go if they are feeling overwhelmed or threatened, a sort of escape route.