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How to keep cats off your car roof?

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by The Professor, Aug 29, 2018.

  1. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    Won't that tend to create more scratch marks from the scurrying beast? Could that be construed as torture?
     
  2. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

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    Oh for corn sakes! People sure like to make a simple thing complicated.

    Just throw a cheap car cover on the Prius, and be done with it! :D
     
    #62 Starship16, Sep 3, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2018
  3. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    A hose won't cause injury and might be a rather effective deterrant. But using a hose might make a neighbor angry, despite being morally of higher ground than a neighbor who lets a cat outdoors which greatly harms natural wildlife. Fair, right?

    We park our vehicles in our closed garage when at home. But for decreasing the piles of cat feces on our property we have had some success with ultrasonic repellers. Unfortunately, they probably also interfere with the habitat of native birds and other native animals to some extent, so try to place them strategically.
     
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  4. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    That works well for us. We still get racoon and opossum poop, plus a rare dog poop, but no other cat poop.


    Re: water hose
    As a cat servant, I'd say yes to the additional scratch marks, no about it being a form of torture (the cat isn't confined within the water spray and is free to leave).
     
    #64 fuzzy1, Sep 3, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2018
  5. goldfinger

    goldfinger Active Member

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    I've completely solved the problem. You need a cat activated car wash. I almost wish I had this issue.
     
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  6. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    One or 2 nights of a light sprinkling of pepper - they don't come back - they realise it's less pleasing an experience than they expected, so try a different neighbour's car, I guess.

    Not many cats these days - there is one which I occasionally see, but I think she's so old she can't jump any more - 3 or 4 years ago, before they brought in the new rule, there was a herd of them - they'd dig in my vege gardens and I had to "treat" a few to a pepper treat when they went on my car.
     
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  7. RCE1

    RCE1 Member

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    If you need to shoot at neighbor's pets, I'd recommend something more in line with an airsoft gun. Shoots 6mm plastic BBs and are less likely to do damage to anything that doesn't need to be damaged. Have to be careful, though, as many of the airsoft guns are pretty fair replicas of the real thing and could end up causing a lot more trouble than scratched paint. Maybe a SuperSoaker?
     
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  8. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

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    I use one on squirrels around here. They must have spread the word, there's fewer and fewer coming around.
     
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  9. Lucifer

    Lucifer Senior Member

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    Ok, call 911 before knocking on the door and hold the phone up, just get a recording for your defense.
     
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  10. tucatz

    tucatz Active Member

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    In America Cats are born with certain inalliable rights and freedoms. like being able to jump up onto and walk across countertops, tables, beds, and yes cars. We humans just need to adapt, wipe off the Kittie prints, and move on.

     
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  11. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    Soooo...I guess the same can be said for dogs, or any other comfort animal capable the neighbors have then?
     
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  12. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    I hope you realize that was sarcasm.
     
  13. tucatz

    tucatz Active Member

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    This is a cat thread. Dogs can go to the park.
     
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  14. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    I enjoy both cats and dogs, but neither's place is not on someone else property.
     
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  15. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    Looking at your signature, does that mean you are at the second phase of truth? Sounds like violent opposition to me... ;)
     
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  16. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    It means I keep my pets/kids/whatever off the neighbors cars. Want to try again?
     
  17. mudworm

    mudworm Member

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    I have three cats and they get to go outside to play when I work from home because I can leave my sliding door open for them. (Otherwise, they are indoor cats.) If I find out they sit on any neighbor's car-- never happened yet, I'll do everything I can (and possibly work with the neighbor) to stop that behavior. But otherwise, they are free to climb fence or cross (quiet, safe, deadend) street and end up on a neighbor's property. None of my neighbors have any problem with that. (I have good relationship with all of them.)

    If I see a cat (not mine) sit on my car, I'll walk up to pet him/her. Visiting cats bring good fortune in life. It doesn't happen often though.
     
    #77 mudworm, Sep 15, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2018
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  18. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    This is a PRIUS thread, as in how to keep PRIUSES free from being damaged by cats which are evil mass murderers as far as songbirds are concerned.
    At the risk of throwing this thread straight into the political cesspool...if cats had rights as we humans know them, then they would necessarily be held accountable for the lives of their fellow animals that they wantonly slaughter just for the feline joy of taking life.
    Fortunately for the cats in my area, they're also evil mass murderers of rodents, so we've developed something of an uneasy semi-peaceful coexistence in my neighborhood.
    This relationship is based on the idea that if you do not spray things in my yard or use my gardens or beds as a latrine, then I will not have to resort to noise, chemistry, forced relocation, or more kinetic means of restraint.

    My latest go-to for particularly recalcitrant felines is a live trap and a mostly no-kill animal shelter.
    There was one very old and VERY feral cat....a male Persian of all things (GOD's sense of humor at work!) that had to be dealt with a little more definitively in my neighborhood.

    You do not need a scoped, silenced, .25 caliber pellet rifle capable of putting a "crow magnum" round through a trash can....although they are quite fun to shoot!!!!
    I've found that a pump action pellet rifle (think: Benjamin) can provide a non-lethal discouragement for felines although great care must be taken in urban environments....
     
    #78 ETC(SS), Sep 16, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2018
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  19. mudworm

    mudworm Member

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    I think many people on this threads are not true to themselves. If you need to take your dissatisfaction about life on cats, nobody can stop you; just don't use birds as a disguise. Of course, as soon as people find out that cats can also kill rodents, bring the cats and birds' lives are no longer relevant!

    If you truly care so much about wild lives endangered by cats, you can take actions that have much greater impact such as joining in the community effort to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). By doing that, you'll save a lot more "songbirds" from the feral population than from a few of those well fed pet cats. Who is in?
     
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  20. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Trap-Neuter-Return will prevent reproduction of that particular animal, but does not come close to solving the problem. Lots of unnecessary death continues. The outside cat needs to be permanently removed from the outside world.

    If one likes animals, particularly the native ones who have a greater right to exist than the outside cat, please do not release any cats back outside. The outside cat goes back into the wild and will continue to kill, injure, and otherwise harass dozens more native species over the rest of its unnatural life.
     
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