Pusscat onboard in the Med

[sailaboutvic]

Lovely story of Abadan. A great picture of pussy on the beach waiting for the water taxi to pick her up. There's no doubting who is master and who is slave in any cat-human relationship. I can't think of anything nicer than having an adorable cat aboard but I don't imagine it's an easy life for pussy. At home, we were adopted by a run away and she has taken over our lives. We recently took her to the boat to see how she would fare. She went on hunger strike and hid for 2 days. I love to see cats aboard boats but it wouldn't work with ours. Best of luck to the OP, hope it works out ok for all.

Here she is hiding in cave locker, aft cabin.

She doesn't look happy , luck for us , Eddie love it and he love visitors for attention, not that he don't get enough from us . The only think he miss is his long time friend , our dog who die some years back , he try's and make up for it winter time when we in a Marina and he goes off for walks with the dog in the Marina .

 

[BurnitBlue]

Always a big argument on USA boating forums about whether a cat should be de-clawed to prevent damage to neighbour's sails. I don't care either way. But they are funny when a de-clawed cat jumps on board then slides off the other side.

 

[maby]

One of these - https://mytabcat.com/ - has helped us retrieve our ship's cat on several occasions when he has stowed away on neighbours' vessels.

 

[OldBawley]

Now that our cat is gone, I realise how much work she needed. I had to fish to feed her, go shopping for cat litter or as in Turkey go get something else as her toilet when she could not go on land. I could not leave the boat unattended at town quays, had to use a lot of cat psychology to be able to leave for a trip.
But she was a real companion.
Twice she helped me kill a big cockroach that flew on board. ( Yes they fly )
The cockroach is smart, is always hiding. I could see by the behaviour and the eyes of Abadan where the critter was. Mostly just around the corner of a bilge of closet.
I lighted my soldering mini torch, the thing gives a extreme fine but long flame. We collaborated.
Abadan could here where the critter was hiding or crawling, I could see where she was concentrating, flicked my flamethrower behind the corner and zapped the roach. Bullseye. We hunted thill we had the bugger.

Think about it. She could smell when I was afraid, what a horror must a boat be in a storm for an animal that hears so well. They also have a better nose than we have, each fibreglass boat emits lifelong styrene. The diesel fumes we can´t smell must be horror for a cat.

Best pet on a boat is a sponge.

 

[OldBawley]

Hurry, I´m hungry.

 

[maby]

...

Think about it. She could smell when I was afraid, what a horror must a boat be in a storm for an animal that hears so well. They also have a better nose than we have, each fibreglass boat emits lifelong styrene. The diesel fumes we can´t smell must be horror for a cat.

Best pet on a boat is a sponge.

They can't be too unhappy, otherwise they would find alternative accommodation! Unlike dogs, cats are independent animals very capable of looking after themselves, so if life afloat with you was too unpleasant, they would be off. Our ship's cat is dozing under the sprayhood right now and could easily hop off and disappear into the distance if he wanted to and there would be nothing I could do about it.

That said, I would never go out of my way to find a cat to take afloat with me - it is a big ask of the animal to get used to it. Our ship's cat arrived unexpectedly having been found a starving little runt bin-diving Mc Donnalds in North London. He desperately needed a good meal and his life expectancy on London roads was probably less than two years before some bus or lorry ran him flat. We agreed to foster him while Cat's Protection looked for a permanent home, we took him to the boat one weekend, he seemed happy enough and, five years later, he's still with us. I have to admit that, when he wakes me up at 3am wanting an early breakfast and a game, I still remind him that he is just being fostered and could find himself confined in some rehoming centre!

 

[OldBawley]

Two years ago, I was anchored in Derric creek on Dokos island when I discovered we had a visitor.
Someone had bitten holes into packages of coconut cream powder.
No cat, so I had to catch the bandit myself.
It was over seven months since I last moored onto a town quay, how the teeth package got on board is still a mystery.
Two days before I had been shopping, had the rigid dinghy pulled up a beach, into high grass.
Guess that is where the mouse boarded, later climbed the dinghy painter up to the boat.
I always anchor at least 150 yards from the shore, a rat could swim that distance, a mouse could not.
The only place where the boat is close to land is in Derric cove. I had fixed the boat in a spider web of 3 anchors and three mooring lines on the bottom with heavy weights holding the lines down so the locals of Dokos island could pas my boat without getting my lines into their prop.
I wanted to paint the topsides, and that place is the only one I know where no passing speedboats make waves to ruin my paintwork.
I had no mousetraps, so first tried to catch the mouse with self made traps. Even had a bucket standing into the bilge so that the top was flush with the floor, filed some mouse goody's in it, made a tripping ramp baited with peanut butter, Had a light on at night and a heavy glass pan cover dangling over the bucket. I could lower the cover from my bed by wire. Read all night, spotted the mouse a few times but could not catch it. Clever bugger.
I took four days to paint the topsides. Cleaning, sanding by hand, cleaning again and painting by brush. All done from the dinghy. No visitors, no locals, no waves higher than an inch, the boat looked good again for two years. Meanwhile the mouse had made a lot of damage. Bitten trough each package of food, except for the ones that I had locked into the steel wood burning stove.
He or probably she had made a nest from our voyage trough France Michelin guide, shredded pages of paper and made a cosy nest. I was tired, working hard by day and not sleeping well to hear the mouse tumble into the bucket.
I sailed to Poros and went shopping for mouse traps. Greeks don´t use mouse traps. They have cats.
They only sell rat traps.
I bought two small rat traps. No poison, eek. The rat traps did not work. So I modified them.
I fixed a bottle cap on the trigger, so the mouse had to clime up the trigger, stick its head into the bottle cap to get to the bait.
Bait gone, no catch.
Then I polished the trigger with 1000 grid sandpaper and oiled it. Even blowing on the bait cap triggered the trap. Putting the loaded trap in place ( always the same to make it easy for ms teeth ) was a risky job, needing two pairs of pliers. A small raisin, a pea size bit of chocolate croissant and a hint of peanut butter.
SNAP.
The mouse was so small, at least 4 of them would have fitted into a matchbox. Must have been a harvest mouse.
Weeks later I was still cleaning up after the malaka.


Our cat would have dealt with the mouse in hours.

 

[Carmel2]

Excellent rodent gallery. Here's one I caught earlier.