DD is starting to crawl - well she looks more like a caterpillar at the moment but I am sure full-on crawling is not far away! DH is going away for 3 weeks so I wanted him to install a safety gate before he went.

We have 2 indoor cats, the food, water and litter box are all in the laundry, which is accessed via the kitchen. Conveniently we can block off the kitchen with one gate

So DH put it up on the weekend, and so far the cats have refused to jump it. It is 75cm high and I know they can jump that high - their scratching pole is about 1m tall and they can also jump on the kitchen bench which is about 1m tall too. I think maybe they are freaked out by the fact they can see through the bars, and that there is nothing substantial to 'land on' while jumping over it.

I've put a dining chair next to the gate to see if that would help - get them used to jumping it with assistance, then I would eventually take the chair away before DD could start climbing! So far one of the cats did use the chair but then he wouldn't jump back out of the kitchen. Sigh.

I don't want to be a cat doorwoman!! They will walk through the open gate no problem.

Can anyone help? Do I just need to wait for them to get used to it?