Once LO is here and mobile, we will obviously want to gate off any staircases, especially the basement steps, which is where our cats have their food, water and litter boxes. How do you allow your pets to have access to other floors while keeping the stairs sectioned off from your kids? Pet door installed on the basement door? Gate lifted a bit off the ground so pets can squeeze through, some kind of special pet gate?

Even though we're far away from LO being here or being mobile, our cats are sloooow to adjustments like that, so we want to get them used to things when LO is an infant. Any suggestions?