My pet cat fell in

ChattingLil

ChattingLil

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Feb 2009
Messages
3,395
Location
Boats in Essex and London
Visit site
Seeing Vic's thread about falling in reminded me tell you about our cat that fell in last week.

Poor thing. It was late, about 11.15, and we heard a splash but thought it was the noisy fowl that play around all times of the day and night. After 10 minutes or so we realised we hadn't seen poor moggie for a while. To cut the story short (any bypassing much loud awakening of neighbours and much weeping, wailing and near hysterial behaviour from me) we found him wedged between a narrow boat and a pontoon - only saved by a football acting as a fender. It took us over an hour and half to find him and I think we were only just in time. He was shivering, shaking and trembling for over 30 minutes afterwards so I suspect he was hypothermic and certainly terrified.

A day or so later a neighbour told us that couple of years ago he heard a thrashing and splashing but ignored it because he also thought it was ducks. Unfortunately, when he got up in the morning he found a dead cat caught by his claws in a fender sock. :-(


Anyway, from a pet owner - please listen out for weird noises and please do investigate - you might save a poor mite's life and save a lot of heartache for the owner.


I was surprised that the cat couldn't get out, but I suppose it's the equivalent of me reaching up 3 or 4 feet to clamber out. There a few cat owners in our marina and they've all said their cats have gone in at least once, so we've now made a series of ramps and rafts in the hope that it will give a cat a chance.
 
Distressing though this may have been for your cat, the incidence of cat-immersion in my area is not so high that I feel it necessary to be permanently on watch.
 
johnalison said:
Distressing though this may have been for your cat, the incidence of cat-immersion in my area is not so high that I feel it necessary to be permanently on watch.
Click to expand...

I'm not asking you to. But the thrashing could also be a human who can't speak for shock of cold or otherwise. Just asking that people do the obvious really - I'm sure most people do.
 
johnalison said:
Distressing though this may have been for your cat, the incidence of cat-immersion in my area is not so high that I feel it necessary to be permanently on watch.
Click to expand...
Don't be disheartend if you get more insensitive replies from the likes of johnalison, in my experence people like that have personality disorders and can't help it.
 
ChattingLil said:
But the thrashing could also be a human who can't speak for shock of cold or otherwise. Just asking that people do the obvious really - I'm sure most people do.
Click to expand...

What a terrifying thought that one could miss/ignore a human in the water (drowning folk often don't shout) - good point that makes makes one think. BTW delighted your cat has recovered.
 
dom said:
What a terrifying thought that one could miss/ignore a human in the water (drowning folk often don't shout) - good point that makes makes one think. BTW delighted your cat has recovered.
Click to expand...
There was an article in Yachting Monthly where a guy was sitting in his cockpit having a late night smoke when he heard a polite "excuse me" and found someone hanging on his anchor chain. He had been there a long while and was at the point of letting go. The point of the story was, don't be shy, bellow HELP.
 
dom said:
What a terrifying thought that one could miss/ignore a human in the water (drowning folk often don't shout) - good point that makes makes one think. BTW delighted your cat has recovered.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It's partcularly pertinent in our marina as one long-time resident did drown earlier this year. Noone heard him.
 
I have no beef with cats ( having had 3 that all lived for about 19 years & gave my wife great friendship) or cat owners --but I cannot help feeling that this highlights the stupidity of taking pets on board boats.
& that is what I genuinely feel- before I get lambasted by pet owners who feel that they need their pets to be with them every breathing hour of their lives
 
People do drown in marinas, but so long as the marina has taken reasonable steps to provide ladders and lighting and a reasonable number of boats have boarding ladders on the stern, there is not much more anyone can do about it. Whether or not I choose to investigate an unusual noise is pure and utter chance, depending on the nature of the noise, my level of wakefulness at the time or whatever I may be doing at the time, and thus tragedies such as we have all heard about will always occur. The prime responsibility for avoiding them lies with the person concerned, if human, such as avoiding inappropriate inebriation, and with pet-owners to keep the animals under control or provide them with additional flotation, as many do. I simply am not going to worry myself about it until it happens, when the likely action I will take will be just the same as the next person.
 
I've heard that a piece of carpet, reversed, showing that criss-cross pattern is dangled into the water whereby moggy can get a good grip and climb back aboard.
 
Pl excuse the slight thread drift, but I'm starting to suspect a water problem of a different sort over in Essex today.
 
I'm sorry about your cat and pleased at the happy ending, though primary responsibility must rest with pet owners as I'm sure you'll agree - the cat overboard 'boarding carpet' sounds interesting, though I don't know if a cat could be trained to know where to go (or remember where, when disoriented). And at least inebriation is not a problem with pets. But I'm sure we'd all help if we heard - I recall a dog going in off a pontoon when frightened by fireworks (a distant party, not on the 5th of November) and a great stampede of neighbours going to the rescue. But recently, the loud splashing noises keeping me awake were (I eventually twigged) caused by mullet grazing at the waterline!
 
ChattingLil,

I'm very glad your moggy is OK; we don't take the cat ( we used to have 3 sadly ) on the boat at all, SWMBO wouldn't dream of it, but then it takes a traction engine to get her near the boat anyway !

I'm afraid my story didn't go so well; my parents and I always took our Westie sailing, and one day ( I wasn't there ) Dad was transferring the dog from tender to boat at the Folly - in the days when there were pile moorings not pontoons - when he struggled and went in.

Dad instantly dived in after him, and both were swept by the tide to the next row of boats, where they were rescued.

However Benjy remained very subdued and died later that evening, maybe it was secondary drowning or he'd ruptured something.

It was pretty bad for me coming back home to an inert bundle of fur in the corner and my Dad in tears - I happened to have rolled my first car end over end that weekend too but that was nothing compared - but my parents never really got over it and still go very quiet when seeing a Westie.

I'm not sure I think all pets should stay at home though; my chum had a lovely dog, a Labrador / Whippet cross, who loved sailing, and swimming when in harbour - he used to stand at the bow of the tender like a figurehead / lookout...

At our local marina the last I heard was 3 liveaboards had separately fallen in and drowned, all in winter; that was years ago so quite possibly more since.

As for keeping an ear out, so true !

Not quite the same, but years ago I was with a girlfriend and her family, swimming off Towan beach just East of Falmouth, with a tractor tyre inner tube in the surf.

A chap kept yelling " Over 'Ere ! " and at first we didn't take much notice, but he seemed insistent and to be yelling at us for some reason; on going ashore to find what he was on about, he said " my mate's out there, I think he's drowning ! "

My girlfriend and her Dad were excellent swimmers so went off like torpedos, leaving me to get the tube through the surf, when I finally got there we all hung onto it as we were surfed back ashore.

The elderly chap looked near passing out, and I still swear the only reason he recovered was the waves pulling off my girlfriends' top !
 
Last edited:
A couple of years ago I was taking the dog for a late night walk when I heard a very muted "Help, help, help". The acoustics on the quay made the sound appear to come from a nearby building. I looked and couldn't see anything and started to walk off. As I walked over a joint in the pontoons the dog barked at something in the water. It was a very drunk man lying in the water suspended by the electricity cables under the pontoons. I got him out (not easily at all), found out which boat he was on and took him there where I handed him over to the other occupants. When I got back to the boat and relayed the story, my missus said that she had heard a noise and had looked but didn't see anything. It was December and I doubt that he would have lasted another hour - she would never have forgiven herself!!!
 
As you're liveaboards, I'd say keep him; cats are not daft, and he's probably learned his lesson !

I know there are doggy lifejackets now - the handle on top being the most useful feature I reckon - but are there cat ones ? I suspect the average moggy might object as not their sense of style.

We just had to put our cat into a cattery ( actuallly a very nice cat hotel it seemed to us ) for a few days while SWMBO moved house, largely to avoid the stress of all the action; we longed to get the cat back, and she apparently felt the same as she won't let SWMBO out of her sight, " whatever I did wrong to get put in prison, I promise I'll behave ! "
 
ChattingLil said:
It's a tricky one. We are liveaboards and our pet is part of our little family. He is coming up 7 years old and we've had him since birth. It has made us think about finding him a new home though.
Click to expand...
To be honest, and speaking as a cat lover, i think your lifestyle choice probably doesn't make for a relaxing pet ownership scenario. Some liveaboards take their animals round the world with them, but then some pets are lost, as well.
My personal criteria for owning a cat are;
Don't live near a busy road
Don't live in a flat
Don't live on a boat.

But then, I suppose it depends how you manage the risk :)
 
Snakes and especially rats love those cat ladders.

Some of the most entertaining threads on American forums are in response to the question of de-clawing a cat when it lives on board. Seeing a neighbours cat sharpening its claws on your mainsail or cockpit cushions polarises a skippers opinion very quickly.
 
Glad your pussy was saved.

We recently acquired an elderly Jack Russell bitch who follows me everywhere. Introducing her to the boat in her late middle age may not have been the best timing, but she copes & much prefers to be with me than left at home with SWMBO. A couple of times now I have heard a splash when I have been working below & left her sunning herself on the foredeck.

She does not wade into the water when I do, so I don't believe she likes water at all, but we have actually seen her jump in occasionally, so not sure if she has fallen or jumped. But once in the water there is no way out & no way she can climb the smooth sides of the dinghy. I have to catch her attention & get her to swim to me so I can reach down & grab her, either by her lifejacket or harness handle or simply by the scruff of the neck. A quick swing will get her on deck where I immediately get soaked as she shakes herself, non the worse for her adventure.

It's like having kids aboard, we are responsible for their safety & while there may not be a coroner's court to answer to there is still ones' own conscience so we do need to know where they are & listen out for the splash. Oh & kids will scream when they go in, animals won't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top