repairing new French Polish

I just finished restoring our dining table which had been a bit shakey for years. It repaired so well I decided to invest more time in it and French Polish it. I laboriously grain filled it and French polished it, brought it back inside after a couple of days and put a cotton table cloth on it.

Attachment 537819

Well the cat decided after never showing any interest in being on any benches or this table before that it quite liked the table cloth as a bed. So I put a couple of sheets of alum foil on the table which video evidence shows is very good at deterring them, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV3O6QoV4tc :U

I can confirm it really works, unfortunately the cat engaged traction control right through the table cloth and I'm left with deep scratch marks in the FP.

Attachment 537820 Attachment 537821
My question is, can I use cat hide as a rubber for French polish? :U :;