How to get tar off of a cat
My friend and I were about to go out for a bit of shopping when we saw a pitiful face through the screen door. Her cat, Tigo, had apparently gotten up on a neighbor's freshly-tarred roof and ended up with patches of sticky tar all over his belly, legs and...er, tomcat bits. We took poor Tigo into the bathroom and gave him a bath with shampoo, dishwashing soap, anything we could think of. The first bath worked a little bit. Small clumps came off in the wash but not enough. We bathed him again while the cat howled in protest. I'm sure he thought it was punishment or we were going to waterboard him or something. The other cats watched from the doorway, probably thinking the same thing. Still, after 3 or more baths, there was still a lot of tar left on the cat. So she called the vet. He told us to use suntan oil -- not lotion but oil-- to break up the tar. Luckily, she happened to have a bottle of the stuff from a long-ago vacation and lo, it worked. The tar turned oily and washed right away. And Tigo was the softest kitty in the world after that. Like cashmere.
(vkacademy has made a kitten tank, Sat 9 Jun 2007, 2:35, Reply)