Hi all! So we have an older gentleman of a cat. He's 14 now and he's pretty mobile and will climb his cat tree, but he's never jumped or squeezed through the stair gate we have on our kitchen door. We initially got it to separate our cat and our dog when he was a hyperactive pup incase he got too much for the cat. It has a cat flap which he'll use when it's open but he will just paw at it when it's shut.
We've since had a baby and now he's mobile we need to baby proof but I'm worried about our cat accessing his litter tray upstairs in our spare room. Our house is small and there's no space for a litter tray downstairs that a baby wouldn't get into (or that would be in the way and smelly for guests visiting) and he has been prone to accidents at times of change etc so i try to keep things consistent for him. We've recently had to change from an enclosed style box tray to a lower entry one with a lower tray inside because he seemed to have stopped using his higher one although he was still climbing his tree to get his dinner.
Any suggestions of what we can do to still give him access? I'm worried that keeping a stairgate with a cat flat would defeat the purpose of having one since the baby could fit through but i do think he'll see the gate as a barrier and cry to get it opened which is what he does at the moment. Any suggestions?