cats and speakers - looking for clues

Find some dust covers, works for me. We have FIVE cats. 

https://www.digitaldeckcovers.com/

My family decided to get a cat.

They should have included you in the decision. 

Don't freak out about it! Wait until the damage is done, then go ballistic.

Other helpful tidbits:

Speakers with metal grills are pet proof.

If the cat is a kitten, your worries will be magnified and especially futile.

Buy cheap gear and your panic will be financially marginalized. 

If you make an effort to bond with a cat, and give him or her a prominent spot to cop in your listening room, it will pay dividends. I have had numerous cats and dogs and nothing shocking has ever happened. After 10 to 20 years or so, you'll put the thought of pet distress behind you. 

When I moved into my first apartment (early 90’s) I had a pair of oversized (particularly in quality:square inch ratio) of KLH something’s. I was in community college and had bought them when I was in high school  

My room mate at the time decided to unilaterally invite a local stray cat which soon became perhaps a pair a trio. Unfortunately for me I had never heard that cats (male?) may ‘spray’ objects. 

One of the felines ultimately devised a way to cover an entire side of a 15” floor standing 15” finished in a fine trailer park quality oak veneer in what I must assume was a combination of urine and liquified feces. 

this was the last time I cohabitated with cats, and aside from a separate event where I suffered profound food poisoning from undercooked ground beef (I later learned the bowl of meat had briefly even the center of attention for one of the felines) I remain impressed and fearful of a cats ability to aerosolize their byproducts as a form of communication or display of ownership. 

Message received.
Soon after IV fluids and being told that cat-feces-contaminated foods generally transmit parasitic infections vs bacterial, I moved in with my current wife and allowed my former roommate and clutch of cats to enjoy those speakers.  
Note: grills may foreseeably attract claw damage but may have provided limited liquid and noxious chemical protection in lower volume exposures. 

What you need to do is take a portable bluetooth speaker to the pet store, play some jazz and get the cats that stop and listen.