It is the new rage: car wiper blades as an ideal cat toy to keep him distracted when he is in the car and fed up or anxious ;). Not really because very few cats sit on the dashboard. In fact I wouldn’t recommend it unless the car is static.
Of course it depends on the cat. Some cats might not like it but it is cool to see a cat on the dashboard having a bit of fun.
It made me laugh because this cat is so predictable. She’s Mei the Maine Coon, by the way although she is not typical in appearance of the Maine Coon, in my opinion. She is a grey tabby and white but her conformation is not long and rangy enough for a Maine Coon. The fur should be shaggier and longer for her to have the classic Maine Coon appearance.
You can see he does a bit of grooming mid-play. For me, in this instance, this is a sign of being a little unsure. It is a form of what is called “displacement behavior”. It makes him feel better. He likes the wiper blades but at the same is probably a bit unsure of them.
How I agree!
You are so right Ruth about no tie outs, a cat tethered can strangle himself if panicking. My blood ran cold once to read of someone who put her cat out with a long string tied a washing line and to her collar. Worse was the people agreeing what a good idea it was! Of course I got pilloried for commenting it was a terrible and dangerous thing to do, but thankfully the person with the cat said she hadn’t thought of the danger and wouldn’t do it again.
A friend of mine had lots of bandanas like that for her dog. I didn’t know they made them for cats. Monty won’t be getting one. He needs no accessories. He is gorgeous just the way he is.
I observed that quick washing behavior in Monty recently. I always set our carved pumpkins from Halloween in the back garden after we are done with them. They just disappear eventually and it’s fun to watch as they shrink and shrivel and just eventually go back to the earth. But Monty seemed to be frightened by them. He was puffed and crouching at first. Finally he got brave enough to sniff one, but bolted mid sniff. Then he slowed to a walk, stopped suddenly to lick a paw, and kept on going. I interpreted the paw lick to mean, “I’m not scared. I may look scared of that thing, but I’m not scared.” He was scared.
Monty used a harness from kittyholster.com when he was little and first going outside, before I knew how he would react. Very easy harness to put on and take off and he tolerated it just fine from the very first day. He would purr when I put it on him because he knew that meant he would be going out. Now that I know he stays in our fenced yard because we’ve blocked all the gaps in the fence and we’ve blocked access to trees he gets stuck in with no easy way to get him down, he doesn’t wear it anymore.
I wouldn’t bother with anything else to acclimate the cat to the harness– just get a quality, comfortable harness and let him wear that. Don’t bother with the cheapies. They are not comfortable, hard to put on and not secure. Even the one Monty had he could wriggle out of backwards. No tie outs with a cat– you have to be out there with him. Cats are Houdini and he will get away on you if you are not out with him. Depending on your location you can probably discontinue the harness eventually as he will have learned to stay by you out there. If it’s an area with a lot of traffic, no quiet place to take him out, skip it entirely. A scared cat can get out of any harness and bolt. The harness is probably most useful in protecting local wildlife from your cat if you are concerned about that. Monty’s saved a couple birds, but he was very upset with me!
My mom’s cat used to slide off her car after iit was freshly waxed.