Cats and stairgates - can they live in harmony?

[miffymum]

DD is getting to the stage where I think i'm going to need to put a stairgate up, top and bottom of stairs - our cat is a bit gereatric and used to going where he likes. Are there any cat friendly ones? Is he going to have to jump over it or - horror- have to abandon his one-cat mission to spread fur all over the duvets forever.

We use ours to keep the cat from getting upstairs, so although we think it's harmonious, the cat is obnviously not very impressed. She is 14 and can still get over it, but she has finally got the message that it isn't worth the aggro as she only gets shooed downstairs again anyway.

she can jump over the one that we have at the back door as well when she needs to, but she'd rather we opened it for her!

Hmmm. Not sure ours will give in to lack of upstairs access without a fight.

When we got him from the rescue centre he registered his displeasure by hiding under the floorboards for 12 days. Dread to think what would happen with no more duvet-access.

can you get him a nice cat duvet and put it on the sofa? Our cat came from my mum's earlier this year and she was used to the run of the house there. She was a bit displeased to start with, but has soon relaised it's either the sofa or getting locked in the kitchen at night. She has opted, sensibly, for the sofa and she has her own fluffy cushion that she sleeps on.

We have one at the bottom of the stairs which our two cats squeeze under, we also have one on the landing which they squeeze through the side. Both are Lidum (?) one wooden, one plastic. I'm sure your cat will be able to get through them.

My cat can get through the bars on our stairgate, although she sometimes chooses to jump over it anyway. Even when it is open, but she is a bit strange.

Our (elderly) cats have always squeezed through or under the stairgate, no problem.