Thx for the tips guys. I'll look up a couple of the models mentioned; If that doesn't look promising, I'll probably go for the cross zoning. I truly hate running wires though... maybe I'll get a contractor out for the last batch of wires...
Our cats do only trip ours in pretty specific situations, so it's not an everyday occurrence; but it seems that they'll repeat the same behavior a few times, then it'll stop for a while... then something will change (boxes get stacked next to the dresser so they can now get up; or most recently, baby gates added that make the cats have to jump to get around them)...
As far as the "Get rid of the cats" - I was raised that pets are like kids - they're your responsibility no matter what once you take them on because we've raised them since kittens and they depend on us... but these will be our last. We do love them, but we've had enough of hairballs and litterboxes...