If any of you have pets, and live in an area where they tar or oil the roads, you may have had the joy of your pet coming home with tar all over its paws. Our cat did this regularly, and we worried about her licking it off. The cat was an outdoor cat, and had all her claws. Let me just say that dipping a cat's paw in turpentine is something you do ONCE, and only once. 'Nuf said. The vet gave us this handy tip: Rub Crisco into the tar, and it softens it up enough to get it off. White paws end up sort of brownish and greasy, but it gets the majority of it off.
Mark Twain once said something like Carrying a cat by it's tail quickly teaches one a valuable lesson that one will not soon forget.
I remember when i was a kid it was a common thing for dogs to get the mange and we would put tar or oil on it to clear it up (didn't always work). Strange we don't see(the mange) that anymore. Jack
Dad would mix up burnt motor oil, coal tar, and sulphur to smear all over a dog with the mange. Seemed to work pretty good to.