Mine is 3 years old and is OK other than a few cat chew marks. I can't understand what other people do with their hardware - it always look like they've played

Mine is 3 years old and is OK other than a few cat chew marks. I can't understand what other people do with their hardware - it always look like they've played football with it or left their dog to chew it, sit on it, dribble on it or left it outside in the rain. Always very odd.