Paints and finishes?

[CardboardCastles]

So, I had the idea recently of recycling my nephew's train table (which he's only ever used as a launching pad for leaping onto various pieces of furniture, and myself) into a small play-space for the boys. The thing has been rehomed for the past 12 years, so a lot of the paint has worn off and left the wood exposed (My dad built this train table for my brother when he was a kid, he's now 18, I think its been through 3 cousins and now my nephew). Its a hexagon shape with a 1.5 inch lip around the entire thing (so the trains/cars/etc never went flying off the table) Its a decent enough size, and I can fit the two little dollhouse things and their tunnel on it with room to spare.

The only issue right now is the wood being exposed (Max is big into peeing to mark his spot. I can't pick him up without getting a wet spot down the shirt, it seems), is there any sort of paint or finish that is better than another for my little dudes?

 

[jorats]

I don't really know of any that is safe for small animals but! I had an old cedar chest that I re-finished and it was at one point part of my rat room. The rats played on it, chewed it and never seemed affected by it.
So I think that as long as it's kid friendly and you've given it at least 2 to 4 weeks to "cure" then it should be safe.