SOLSC #3 - The Baby Gate

For the fourth year, I am participating in the SOLSC and guiding students from my classroom and my school on the same writing journey. Here is the link to our school blog and the 15-20 students who are participating in the Classroom Challenge.

The Baby Gate - 

My daughter is six-and-a-half, but we still use the baby gate every night. It does nothing to stop our daughter, who has been climbing over it for four years, but we click it in every night at the bottom of the stairs. It's for our cat.

Eighteen years ago, we adopted a tiny kitten from the pound and each winter, he would cuddle on our bed, often right between me and my wife. Now as a geriatric cat, he can't jump up on the bed, which also means he can't get over the baby gate. While we miss his cuddles, he has become a tremendous yowler and scratcher, especially in the middle of the night. While the yowling was tough, he started scratching on all the doors and walls several times each night. Imagine being awoken by the sounds of claws on a wall, rhythmically, continuously, with no clear end. Or, if you're a sound sleeper like me, being awakened by a very grumpy partner, who is upset at the cat but also upset you're still sleeping. Neither are good.

So one evening, we put up the gate, and the scratching problem was gone. He curls up in his cat bed instead. It's not uncommon for us to think his yowls are our daughter calling out in the middle of the night. But being the sound sleeper, it doesn't wake me up so often and I get more sleep...so does my wife.