Effective (and harmless) cat deterrant - for soft-top car

[8bit]

Folks,

We've recently moved house and one of the local cats has taken to sitting and walking on our car roofs. I'm not quite so bothered as my car is a hatchback but my girlfriend's MX-5 has a black, fabric soft-top roof so we wish to harmlessly discourage said feline from parking his reasonably sizeable backside on her car.

We're principally concerned that his weight causes the roof to stretch and it's water-resistance diminish but I guess there's also additional risk of him puncturing the roof with his claws, if he was to milk-tread on it. He's mostly orange in colour though, so it makes the bits where he sits look almost like mohair...

I've only ever seen him (I'm presuming it's a tom, he looks like a bit of a bruiser) on her car the once so chasing him off with buckets of water etc. aren't really an option. Are there any effective sprays perhaps, which won't damage or discolour the car's roof and don't smell unpleasant to humans? Something else altogether?

Thanks in advance,
8bit

[Mubby]

I don't know the answer, as our cat sits on the roof of our TVR!

Are your cars parked on the street or on a drive? if a drive in your own garden what I would be do is buy some form of cat deterant and stop them coming into the area (or whole garden) where the cars are... of course if you park on the street this wont work!

deterants such as motion sensor spray repellant or those ones that give off a loud frequency, even just cat repellant powder round the garden, flower beds etc near where the cars are... I really don't know if you could put something on the actual car roof tbh.

of course we can't do this as the cats live here

I know a friend of mine has one of these and finds it works, well for flower beds
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONIC-CAT-DOG-FOX-DETERRENT-...

Edited by Mubby on Friday 8th July 18:28

[pacman1]

De-catting an MX5... whatever next!

[Superficial]

Cats hate oranges, put some orange peels around the perimeter of the car.

[Lippitt]

You just need to lay something plasticky or tin foily on the roof. Cats will hate it and has the extra bonus of protecting from elements if it's parked outside!

[Alexdaredevilz]

Supersoaker 9000xxx

[GBDG]

So the MX5 attracts pussy... noted

I read somewhere that putting tiger or Lion urine around works as the cats recognise the scent of the larger animal and are scared off. You could try wizzing on it yourself, make sure you do it at night though, a lesson I learned the hard way.