How to keep cats off your car roof?

Who put the r next to the t ?????

Wasn't it that Mavis Beacon?

 

Honestly, I don't think there is much that can easily be done to stop this from happening.
Somebody recently said one of their first purchases after getting their new Prius was going to be a cat proof car cover. So a car cover could be an option.
But personally the usage of a cover seems like it would be a real pain.
Cat's can be stubborn, independent, nocturnal and once they adopt a place as somewhere they want to be? It's hard to convince them it's not theirs to have.

I'd file this under interactions with nature...domesticated or otherwise.

I noticed recently that nearly every day, I was coming out to my car to find bird droppings along the side, under my drivers side mirror.
Then I noticed the other morning, that a particular little bird, seems to like to perch on my mirror, and take his/her morning poop.

I suppose I could HOPE for a cat to adopt my roof.
6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other.

 

Hard to stop birds - but PEPPER definitely stops cats. I've actually sprinkled it in my strawberry garden where the cat from up the road started digging - that stopped it there too. Just had to avoid sprinkling the fruit.

Up the road, they've got CDs and DVDs (probably violent movies) hanging up around their car - they said it's to scare the birds, and they reckon it works. This photo has CDs as bird scares for fruit trees:

 

Many cars have issues with cats under the hood of the car where it is protected and, sometimes, warm.

 

Mmmm, looks like you might have a problem! You could always ask your neigbour to "fix" the car, or perhaps try the bucket of cold water trick! (reminds me of the old joke: " Our dog is so very smart that the other day when he saw a couple of blokes riding a tandem down the street, he grabbed a bucket, filled it with water, and chased after them…" (SFX: Rim-shot!)

 

I'd disagree... It would just end up as an appetizer...

 

We also have multiple cats. While most of the time they move and land without claws, there are occasional exceptions. Because of those exceptions, all of our cars of the past few decades accumulated a few claw scratches.

Any time our cats unexpectedly slip, slide, lose traction, or get startled, the claws come out. If they try to jump up the side and misjudge the leap, especially in the tight confines of the garage, the resulting scramble can leave claw marks. Frost or heavy dew occasionally compromise traction. While most of these are unwitnessed, the spouse and I have personally seen and heard a few of them happen.

A leashed cat managed to get atop a car, get tangled in the roof rack, then tried to jump down without enough rope to get to the ground, 'hanging' himself. He then scrabbled back up the side, peaceably staying on top until I (as yet unaware of the hanging episode) fetched and untangled him to take him inside. Only later with full sun shining on that side did I discover the evidence of the struggle, with some fresh fur and numerous fresh scratches from his struggles to clamber back up to the roof.

 

In my state, this would be a confession to a criminal offense, worth some jail time. Legally, this escalation is far more serious than the civil tort of property damage from a roaming animal.

 

Ok now, what is cayenne pepper going to do to the paint? And do I need to sprinkle some on my engine???

POOP!


I put a "cat house" in the backyard. Problem solved.

 

You are a bad person in my book.

 

There is a neighborhood (outdoor) cat, who has chosen me to feed her after her owners moved away. She hasn't done it to my Prius yet, but she used to sometimes sit on the top of my CR-V. Come to think of it, it might just have been during the colder days even though our winters here are relatively mellow. I won't be surprised to see her perched on top of my new Prius someday (parked under a carport). The day has not come yet, but when it does, I suppose I have a couple of options: 1) I will let it go and not be bothered knowing it's just a car and no serious damage will occur from the cat , or 2) I will do something, such as seasoning up my Prius, to deter the jump.

 

I just use normal pepper. It only needs them one or two nights for them to relate it to a taste they don't like - much less damage than grit ground into the paint.

 

This thread actually became a lot darker than I would of imagined.
The reason I shared the anecdote about the bird and my car, is I feel it's all very similar and very related. That is, if you park outside, your vehicle is going to be exposed to whatever the environment presents. Be it cats, dogs, birds...whatever.

Sometimes the results may be less than pleasant.

However, I honestly feel just not letting it bother you, IS the best answer.

I've always had to park my vehicle outside. I've never had the luxury of a garage. Yes, where I lived at before, was the heart of a suburban neighborhood. I would often look outside to see a cat on my vehicle. It never really bothered me. Any damage to result I consider simply the cost of doing business in the real world.

That is....birds will poop on your car. Stones and rocks may chip you windshield...and cats may decide that they want to sit on your car.

Outside of a little cleaning?
It's never been a big deal. In fact in my old neighborhood I would often catch a neighborhood cat sitting on my car.
I'd say good morning...open the door, He/She? (never checked) would jump down and we'd both go on our ways. I considered it an honor to share my hood with an obvious leader of the outside cat population. I mean, the cat had a choice, I felt the cat's choice to interact with my vehicle...and myself was actually a good thing.

In fact one time I had to wash actual muddy paw prints off my vehicle.
It was just funny to me. If there was any "permanent" damage? It never was enough for me to register or worry about.

 

Buy d special mat, prevent cat to step in d roof

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Christopher Scholes. I'm recently reading that it was on the advice of telegraph operators, not to slow down fast typists who would jam early mechanical typewriters.

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Perhaps a cat repulsive spray... But you d need to respray after every rain ...

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Cover your car.

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Gosh, that's a good idea for so many reasons. Esp. for you (and me) in Chicagoland. It will keep the car from heating up too much in the sun, keep you from having to scrape it in the winter, keep the paint from bleaching in the sun...

But it might make the car MORE attractive for cats to sit on, because it will retain heat and be softer.

 

Bird shit, too. Better: a garage.

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