My pet cat fell in

[Marine Reflections]

Water activated inflatable collar?
Same self inflating system as life jacket, but much smaller.

Perhaps it could have a device that once submerged, it communicates a distress signal, text, phone call?

Or even one that communicated to another device that released an emergency boarding system?

 

[Seajet]

Our 2 cats caught cat flue in a cattery & nearly died so I would be careful of the quality of cattery
never put them through that again

Cat flue is a horrible thing, we had a beloved cat eventually die because of it ( not as far as we know via a cattery, a mystery but we didn't have her as a kitten ) - all decent catterys now insist on vet records, jab registrations etc for exactly this reason or they won't take them; sorry you had that heartache.

 

[TQA]

My boat cats have come aboard as kittens and all have learned to climb out on a piece of netting.

This one climbs on to the top of the rudder and howls piteously for someone to come and fetch him.

The pic shows him looking disgruntled at having to climb out by himself.

 

[Tricia]

My cat has fallen in three times, the first time when she was a small kitten. We didn't notice till she arrived back in the cabin soaking wet. The second time I heard her miss her footing on the awning. I rushed outside with a sarong to throw in the water for her, but couldn't find her. When I called her I heard outraged yowling, then she appeared climbing up the vertical boarding ladder. She was very disgruntled when I poured fresh water over her to rinse her off. The third time she had a fight with a plastic bag (we think) and ended up holding onto a mooring line with her front paws. She shrieked her head off, but Rob was already on his way to rescue her as he heard her go in. The first two times we were at anchor, the third in a marina.

As for going onto other peoples boats, she never gets off the boat unless we take her, she's lived at anchor since we first got her as a rescue kitten from an animal shelter and she refuses to go ashore even in marinas.

We've sailed with her and the rule is she doesn't go out of the cockpit during the day and if she is in the cockpit at night she wears a harness, which she hates. The harness is designed to have the tether on the underside like a figure of eight crossing under her body so that if she goes overboard she can, hopefully, use the tether to climb back on board. Cats seem to dislike having things on their backs.

There are some really good threads on Cruiser's Forum about pets on board.

 

[sailaboutvic]

We also are Liveaboard and have a cat that's gone in quite a few time now , yes it is a worry , you would think he learn by now , last winter there was five cats on liveabourd boats in the marina , all went in at one time or another , lucky none came to any harm , you have to remember to rise the cat off in fresh water , licking the salt water off them ( the cat not the owner ) can do their liver in . I have to admit we did have one Liveaboard who complaint about one of the cats coming on to their boat , in the end they moved to another pontoon , only to find two weeks later they had a rat on board ,and moved back on the our pontoon , I know what I rather have .
Hanging an old towel over board can help . We anchor most of the time and only use a marina in the winter .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[RichardTaylor]

Our cat is with us on our sailing boat most of the time. We initially bought a small pet-float life jacket, which he absolutely hated and just flopped. Worse still he had an uncanny knack of doing a Houdini and walking into the cockpit just as we were going through the roughest water on the entry to Portsmouth Harbour!!!

We now use a harness and "small dog" lead - http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/cat-collars/red-mesh-cat-harness?pageSize=64# - which because our cat is big we had to modify the neck slightly as it was a little tight, and he like wearing it, remains cool and is under control. It doesnt stop SWIMBO worrying about him though.

 

[davidpbo]

Any time when it is likely to uncomfortable to retrieve our dog, he is usually clipped on either through the loop on his buoyancy aid (which he wears quite happily. Just don't try putting anything else on!) Or harness.

Buoyancy aid on in tender and often tethered to it. It is the handle we use it for although it does have contact numbers on it.

Thinking about a pet on board sign for when we leave him on board unattended.

 

[ChattingLil]

Cats in lifejackets are funny. We've tried ours in one and it renders him unable to walk or even stand up. Very strange!

We keep him locked in a cabin when underway, but he's never even left his hiding hole when underway (we've not taken him on a passage more than a few hours). He has only ventured off the boat to the pontoon in the past few weeks. We are sincerely hoping he's learned a lesson. Since his dip, he hasn't left the cockpit.

 

[TQA]

A previous boat cat loved sailing and would often jump up on to the boom on passage especially if we had a reef in.

We had to add the line "Tack the cat" to our tacking procedures.

View attachment 45852