Boat Cat?

Tim Good

Tim Good

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Ok so we're on the fuel barge the other day and my girlfriend exclaims there is a cat on a westerly that is motoring quite briskly down the River Dart. I look a across and quite dismissively say "no dear that's a small dog". She scolds me for doubting so I double take and sure enough there is a cat sat proudly on the foredeck, with a little life jacket, taking in the view.

Is it just me or is that quite rare? I mean it wasn't just sat below curled up. It was strutting around the deck like it owned the boat while it was doing at least 6 kts.
 
northcave,

yes it's rare but not unheard of, I knew a lady sailor whose cat strolled the decks and would go and ' fetch ' thrown toys.

Robin Lee Graham in his book ' Dove ' refers to his cat strolling along the boom when sailing across ocean, but beware cat lovers don't read it, the story did not have a happy ending.
 
Not at all unusual. My s-i-l had a cat on board for part of her circumnavigation which, sadly, got swept overboard during a particularly heavy storm. :(
 
"The ship's cat" seems more familiar a phrase than "the ship's dog", probably because they were commonly kept aboard as ratters (and semi-pets as well).

Pete
 
I would have been happy as Larry if mine had just messed around on deck. She came aboard as a kitten spent 7 years aboard Carpe Diem with me, jumped ship when I went back to work and made it to India where she joined the Black Pearl at age 18.

The pic will explain the extra line in our tacking checklist.

TACK THE CAT.

We had a reef in so it would have been around 25 knots that day.
 
A couple of years ago a Frenchman had moored in front of me in Ploumanac'h.
Returning to the boat after an after-dinner shower, I climbed
aboard, then saw a movement in the water a few yards away. It was a
cat, obviously drowning, but still feebly attempting to swim. Before
I could get the oars back in the dinghy I saw the Frenchman returning
in his dinghy and shouted that there was a cat in the water.
Inexplicably he circled round the cat three times before scooping it
up and taking it on board his boat. He didn't seem to do much. I
heard a couple of croaks. Then I think he said it was dead.

After I'd stowed the dinghy, a Guernseyman from the boat at the other
end of the Frenchman rowed round and asked what had happened. I told
him. Then he said that there had been a cat on board the Frenchman's
boat. They had left it with access to the deck when they went ashore.
The cat had been miaowing and trying to walk the ropes towards the
Guernseyman's boat. Then the miaowing had stopped....
 
One guy I met when looking for my strayed Siamese told me he hung a towel over the side when in harbour so the cat could climb back on board after going for a swim. Cats of course would never fall in, it wouldn't be the done thing.
 
Many years back I had a boat on swing mooring. One day I was rowing out to my boat past a fairly derelect hulk. I saw a ginger cat on the hulk. next thing I know it had jusmped into the water and swum towards my dinghy. I had no choice but to fish it out of the water. Someone had apparently left it on the hulk to keep sea gulls off. I then became the owner of a cat at home. I never took it near the water figuring it would be quite traumatised about water. So cats can and will swim. olewill
 
We have two boat cats who have been with us for just over three years, since they were tiny. Although they love going ashore and rolling in the dirt when we tie up (very rare), they are very happy on the boat. They have both fallen in when at anchor and can swim very well, one can even climb the stainless steel stern ladder. They are currently being trained to use the heads to get rid of all the cat litter we have to source and carry around. They are very entertaining and keep us warm on cold winter passages when they snuggle in the cockpit with us.
 
A cat has just adopted us in Gouvia, I reckon it must have been given the heave ho from another boat, as its so happy aboard, knows how to use a litter tray, just stays aboard now, used to go ashore for toilet then straight back, now doesn't bother going ashore seems very happy and contented. Really cute cat, she will be staying. Been spayed and chipped and injected, frontlined etc. Would love to train her to use the heads, but how? She will never manage to push the leccy button!! hehehehe
 
ccscott49 said:
Would love to train her to use the heads, but how? She will never manage to push the leccy button!! hehehehe
Click to expand...

She's not siamese is, she? Very fussy. Demonboy of this parish has one which happily uses one heads, but won't go near the one used by yumans.
The training regime is fairly straightforward: Mr Google can point you to it. But from what I remember it won't include any button-pressing; you'd need a lab rat for that ;)
 
If they go for a swim in salt water they need a rinse off in fresh water. They will lick themselves dry and their kidneys do not cope well with the salt.

Rumba from TACK THE CAT would fall in about once a month, well actually run off the side of the boat during mad cat half hour, and would come around looking for her rinse off in the sink with a touch of conditioner.
 
If they go for a swim in salt water they need a rinse off in fresh water. They will lick themselves dry and their kidneys do not cope well with the salt.

Rumba from TACK THE CAT would fall in about once a month, well actually run off the side of the boat during mad cat half hour, and would come around looking for her rinse off in the sink with a touch of conditioner.
 
macd said:
from what I remember it won't include any button-pressing; you'd need a lab rat for that ;)
Click to expand...

I seem to remember someone at work training his cat to use the loo at home, then rigging up an image-recognition system to detect when the cat (but not a human!) had been, then flushing the loo after it left. Hugely over the top, but not that surprising given some of the people I work with :)

Pete
 
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