polite kitty

Last night I installed a baby gate in the upstairs hallway. It separates the rooms Quint can explore from the bathroom, stairs, and loft, which he should not explore. The bathroom would be fine, but it's easier to stick it mid-hall before the bathroom door. And I wanted to avoid trying to step over a babygate and down a step with a baby on my hip.

Anyway, the kitty encountered the baby gate this morning and meowed piteously from the other side of the gate. I kept calling her, but she wouldn't jump it. This thing is knee height - easily jumpable. I just lifted her over it. As we were all leaving for the day, I encouraged her to jump it. She looked at me like, "didn't you put this up to keep me out?" How sweet of her to think that this was to control her! However, there is no way that a baby gate could control a cat. I started to step over it myself, talking to her but not looking at her, and promptly kicked her in the head. Smooth move x-lax! She darted into my office. I stepped back over, put the baby down and tried to love on her. She popped her head around the corner giving me this fierce look. Then stepped to the baby gate, touched her paws to the top of it, and bounded over it. She then gave me another fierce look and darted down the stairs.

Well, that wasn't quite how I wanted to teach her that, but the lesson got taught anyway.