Conference misery::feline

    I don't understand why road dirt affects the ability to use a car
    cover?  (My neighbor's cats use my car as a launching post
    to my garage loft, but they have never scratched the car's
    finish.  Could there be a problem with your paint job?)
    

    
    My 4 cats are all over our cars and never has a cat scratched my paint. 
    now talk about sand trucks passing me on the roads - now that scratches
    my paint and how about the 18wheelers infrount of you? I got a bunch of
    dings from rocks from them babies..

    
    What about the scat blanket??  I know that I have seen it in magazines,
    not sure if they sell it in pet stores.  It is suppose to keep animals
    away from the furniture that you don't want them on..  
    
    Have you tried talking with the owners of the kitties???  
    
    
    Good Luck!!
    
    
    *joyce
    

    
    I don't believe cat claws are sturdy enough to scratch 
    exterior paint. I think cat claws would break or give before 
    the paint is scratched. Or do you mean the cats scratched 
    up the interior?
    
    There are a lot of events that can unexpectedly scratch
    car paint, like going thru a car wash, waxing the car
    with a cloth or sponge that has just one tiny grain of sand,
    rubbing against the dirty car, driving next to or behind a 
    sander truck (essentially sandblasting).  
    
    
    Eva

    
    In general all that results from cats on a car is paw prints 
    that can be wipped off.  Cats like to sit on high places, especailly
    if your car has recently been used and is still warm. The only time
    they might scratch it is, if you catch them by surprize or scare them
    off of your car. Then the claws might come out in panic. 
    
    Shaw

    
    
    	Thanks for all of your responses. The problem I seem to have is
    	that I cannot keep the car clean for anything. Every time I wash
    	my car they seem to be attracted to it & hop up on the hood after
    	I park it in my driveway. I do have a few scratches from when they
    	may of gotten scared from something & ran off but the paw prints on
    	a "just cleaned & waxed" car is very frustrating.
    
    							Brian

    I think the paw prints are cute :-)
    

    I do too.  I guess I feel that cars have such dizzying depreciation
    that I could either drive myself nuts by trying to keep my car in
    pristine showroom condition (and still get an insulting ROI) or accept
    the fact that "stuff [dings, scratches and rattles] happens".
    
    I do worry about critters getting stuck inside the engine compartment
    (shudder), but that's another note.
    
    Leslie

    re .6
     I like cat paw prints on my car too, but might be you not... But
    anyway, you seem to be a new car owner with new cars. After one week
    one should notice that a car CANNOT kept clean and basta. There is so
    much dirt around, that even if you have a closed garage, simply driving
    three miles makes your vehicle dirty. I have a friend who is MAD with
    his car and parks it in the living room (yes, in the living room, he
    extra let build his house that he can park his car in the living room)
    and waxes it three times a day (no, you are wrong, he is not stupid, I
    also groom my cat three times a day, one has cat, one has automobile as
    a pet). Yes, and his car IS dirty too (Imagine the living room carpet
    after he drives home in a winter day...) That's why he drives only in
    fine Summer days. Yes, a peculiar man. But his car IS dirty too.
    
    You shall forget this problem I think in a month. If you saw MY car...
    
    And in the world there are thousands of things scratching the paint
    more than cat's claws. I would say forget it... and let the critters
    sit there.  
              

    I'll add, as the owner of a classic Mustang, that "show condition" cars
    are that way because they aren't driven.  They're garaged always,
    and taken to car shows on trailers.  Maybe once a year they're
    driven as part of a car show parade.  Trying to keep a regular car
    pristine is like putting plastic slip covers on the sofa :-)
    p.s.  I enjoy driving my car.
    

    
    
    I don't like paw prints on my car, neither, especially after
    a wash, but thank goodness the prints are not permanent. 
    I do try to keep my car in the best condition I can, since 
    it really translate to the $$$$ at trade-in or sell-off time. 
    However, the majority of permanent damage I get on my car is 
    from dinks in parking lots, especially grocery store lots. 
    Two weeks after I picked up my new car (2 years ago), a run-away 
    grocery cart dented the fender good! So, since then, I figure 
    that the only way to keep the car in showroom condition is to 
    change my life style! My husband never gets a scratch or a dent 
    on his car, stone chips maybe; but then all he does on a regular 
    basis is to go to work and play tennis! When he does go to the 
    store, he parks his car 2 miles away from the entrance and 
    1/2 a mile away from another car! When we go down to Boston or
    any busy locale, we leave his car at home (so it doesn't get 
    scratched, hit, or stolen). Maybe the best way to do this is to 
    drive a cheapo junk box on a daily basis and save the nice car 
    for the sunday ride, but then why bother buy/maintain the nice car,
    might as well rent a nice car for the weekends.
    
    
      
    Eva                                            

    At least I can say that I'm the one who put the first scratch
    in my new car.  Did it with the bike when I put it on the bike
    rack for the first time on the new car (I'd been using the old
    car for that and finally got brave one morning...my mistake).
    I've learned now to be carefull where the pedal closest to the
    car is now.
    
    Jan
    

    We have 2 very different opinions in our house about this subject. I
    have a car (throw anything in it, put stuff on it while looking for
    keys, don't worry about bangs or scratches), whereas my husband has a
    (...pause here for emphasis...)  ...C  A  R .... sometimes I think it
    should be spelled CARE, for all he does to it.
    
    he says the cats scratch the paint when they jump on it. It used to
    drive him nuts when we didn't have a garage and there were cat prints
    on the car. I think it's cute and have even contemplated trying to make
    permanent cat prints :^) but can only imagine what else would get
    painted before I could get anything off their paws.
    
    For all that it bothered him, we never found a way to keep them off the
    car. The "off" blanket might be a possibility, but if the person is
    that concerned about the car, then the existing dirt under the blanket
    could scratch the paint as much (the reason why the t-tops never came
    off the car... if they are dirty when you put them in the bag, then the
    bag gets dirty and the next time you put the t-tops in, they could be
    scratched...... luckily he's mellowed quite a bit since that!)
    
    Some of the other ways to keep cats off stuff - balloons that pop when
    jumped on, aluminum tins with water that slosh or spill might work here
    without causing additional damage.
    
    good luck!
    
    janetb.
    owned by Merlin and Rascal who will jump on what they choose, when they
    choose, no matter what

  Years ago when I bought my son his first real bicycle, the instruction book
that came with it gave two options for dealing with a flat tire.  When (not 
if) you get a flat tire you can patch it and it'll go flat again OR you can 
buy a new tire and it'll go flat again.  The point: stuff breaks.  We try to 
take care of our things because it's expensive to replace but we also 
recognize that it's just stuff.  We enjoy it while we can and try not to let 
the breakage drive us nuts.  I have to admit it hasn't been the easiest lesson 
for us, but kids and pets do help with the learning process :-).  It helps to 
rmember that people and pets are far more important than the stuff.

  We keep our car garaged when it's at home and it's in fairly good shape 
except for some scratches on the trunk lid.  I'm positive those are NOT from 
cats but from someone setting something on it in a parking lot.  I also have 
a company car that has been scratched three times on the quarter panel in as
many months (once at home and twice at work), probably from a key the first 
time and the garbage truck the second time.   I've given up having the body 
work done on it, especially since the last time the scratch didn't go through
the paint.  It's frustrating and time consuming and expensive but it's also 
life.  I hope you don't take it out on the cats!

				SQ

    Cats in my neighborhood always scratch my car when they slide off.
    Mostly because my car is always covered with a fine layer of road grit.
    Just try wiping that grit off with a nice soft cloth, and you'll see
    some lovely scratches.  My car is parked in the driveway right at the
    crossroads of major cat traffic.  I figure I'm in their way, so I
    shouldn't complain about their foot prints : )  You want to see
    scratches? You should have seen the time I scared a squirrel from atop
    the wooden fence above the retaining wall above my driveway.  Squirrel 
    fell OFF the fence, OFF the wall, directly onto my car.  The 
    neighborhood tom (who was perched along the wall right under the
    squirrel on the fence) saw the whole thing, and made a lunge for the 
    falling squirrel.  All on the roof of my car. There were LOTS of 
    scratches from both the cat and the squirrel trying to get a purchase 
    with their repspective claws on the hood of my little car. The squirrel
    ran up a telephone pole and screeched at me and the cat for quite some
    time, like we did it on purpose or something : )
    Sarah

    
    This is all just proof of one of my Observed Laws of Cat Behaviour:
    
      Never walk around something you can walk over.
    
    len (who has himself been frequently walked over).
    

    
    <-- YES!  Last night my face was between Pamina and my water glass, and
        she stepped right on my forehead on her way to it!
                                                         

    I think there's a corollary to that law: when your human is walking
    around, anticipate his or her every move, and Be In The Way!
    
    I swear I could devise a fiendish labyrinthine path through my house,
    and Veto would cut me off at every turn.  How does he *know*?
    
    Leslie

    RE: .15 scratching when sliding off.
    
    you hit the nail on the head. I have a scratch straight down the metal
    piece along side the windsheild, and a coupld of scrathes on the roof,
    and a couple of small ones on the trunk on my almost brand new 95
    Mustang with 3 coats of wax. And I witnessed most of those scrathes go
    on as Mickey, my next-door-neigbor cat slid on and off my car. (I'll
    give hte cat credit for this, he has good taste in what car to be seen
    on :-)
    
    Deb

    Our car always has paw marks all over it, cat, squirrel and raccoon but
    the only scratches we have are in places I don't think any of the above
    animals could have made.
    
    Our car is a 84 Fifth Avenue and Syd's darling, so he does gripe when
    he sees a mud slide on the windshield but he also remembers to give the
    hood a pounding befor he starts her up, in case some-one is taking a
    nap inside.
    
    joan

    
    
    I LOVE seeing paw prints on my car, especially after I've just
    washed it!
    
    Donna

    Yesterday I happened to meet a HUGE Mercedes Benz (600 class) with a
    big dozen of catpawprints on the engine compartment cover.
    
    I screamed laughing. Huge. Black. Aristocratic. Snobic. Mercedes.
    PAWED!
    
    Yeeeee!
    
    Nat