Hi cat experts,
We brought home a couple of 8 month old kittens from a rescue four weeks ago.
We're new to kittens, having only rescued one adult cat before (who sadly passed away last year).
I'm struggling to cat proof. The humans in our household are two adults and two kids; one 7 year old and one 9 year old. They children love Lego, barbies, Playmobil. They make models that stay out and are very bad at remembering to put toys away.
The kittens love chewing and occasionally eating stuff they shouldn't, and Lego, Barbie clothes and Playmobil are mostly those shouldn'ts.
Our kids are also very bad at remembering to put stuff back to where it goes, so shoes, hair ties, a sponge, paper and a sticker have so far been left where the kittens are and been chewed/nearly eaten. Actually the sponge was my fault and I found it shredded on the kitchen floor this morning.
We didn't have this chewing and occasionally eating inappropriate items with our adult cat, with the exception of one chewed soft toy. Putting that on top of a wardrobe prevented that behaviour. The kittens can jump 5 ft and onto the wardrobe.
We've got to the point the cats are now contained in one room because every other room has stuff we can't let the cats get to. This is not sustainable and my kids, bless them, also forget to shut the door to that one room.of containment so I'm constantly chasing cats.
Can anyone who's had primary school age children and kittens at the same time, help me work out how to make this work? So my kids can still be kids and play with toys/be forgetful and leave shoes etc in the wrong place. And my kittens can still be kittens, explore and be able to roam the house again. Or, is this impossible?