I’ve been asked how to prepare a cat for the new baby.

I am personally against declawing, but I do think it’s important to do something to make sure the baby doesn’t get any scratches. If you aren’t familiar with SoftPaws then check them out. Your vet can put them on if you aren’t comfortable with it, but if you’re comfortable with it then you can do it. You’ll need to check the cat daily to make sure none have come off, and you’ll need to replace them if they do. The colored ones are easier to find laying around the house than the clear ones. Oh, and this is only for indoor cats. If your cat goes outside sometimes then don’t take away his natural defenses.

You’ll need to make sure that a crawling or toddling little one can’t get to the litter box. Suggestions for the litter box are to put it in a laundry room or garage and put a cat door going into that room. If you have a particularly smart cat you might want to do it six months ahead of time. The sooner you do it, the less of a chance the cat will put two and two together and figure out the reason for it. Some cats will probably be okay if you do it a month before you leave, others will not.

Cat food will also have to be situated where the baby can’t get to it. Once again, it’s also best to do this a little ahead of time.

You can also start getting the cat used to rough petting – touch whiskers, play with ears, grab the tail. You just want to be comfortable that the cat won’t strike out in reflex when mishandled a bit. You don’t want to let your child mistreat the cat, but it’s a given that a toddler will pet the cat where the cat doesn’t want to be touched at least once.

Don’t kick the cat out of bed after you arrive home. Likewise, don’t let the cat get used to sleeping in the baby’s crib while you are waiting for your referral (squirt guns work wonders for teaching a cat where they should not go).

And then the rest of it is just making sure the cat isn’t jealous. Give the cat plenty of attention once you arrive home with baby.

Ask yourself how much you trust your cat. Some cats are trustworthy around kids, others are not. My aunt has a cat that can go from cuddle cat to rabid weedeater with absolutely no warning. My daughter is not allowed within ten feet of this cat. My sister has a cat that my daughter is allowed to pick up and carry around like a baby – the cat loves the attention and has never offered to hurt anyone.

You will have to make a decision about how much interaction there will be between baby and cat. Figure it out as best you can ahead of time and then try to work towards whatever you think the daily schedule is going to be like.

One last thing – keep in mind that most cats don’t respect baby gates, they just jump right over them, so keeping them separated can be harder.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.