Cat Life Jacket

[Tnflakbait]

I am wondering if anyone makes their cat wear a life jacket while at sea. I just got one for my cat and he keeps falling over. He can't jump very well either. His balance is all messed up. Is this a problem for anyone else? It seems like the jacket could make him fall off the boat.

Thanks

[Chief Engineer]

Have you ever thought he might be trying to make a break for it?

[knottybuoyz]

It's been our experience with lifejackets for cats is 1: as you noticed, they fall over and 2: they'll wiggle out of them in no time flat.

[Tnflakbait]

Well, I just went out shopping. When I left the cat had a life jacket. When I returned just now he was sitting there without a life jacket. I can't find it either.

[ajman]

Have you seen this one? Critters Inflatable, Pet Preserver, Pet Life Preserver, Pet Life Jacket, Product Page Not very bulky plus it looks cool.

It's been my experience that anything you try to attach to a cat, even a collar, takes some getting used to. Give him some time and he'll probably accept it.

BTW, I've heard that with a cat on board, when tied up you always hang a towel over the side touching the water, so he can climb back aboard if he misses that seagull he was trying to pounce on.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Tnflakbait

I am wondering if anyone makes their cat wear a life jacket while at sea. I just got one for my cat and he keeps falling over. He can't jump very well either. His balance is all messed up. Is this a problem for anyone else? It seems like the jacket could make him fall off the boat.

Thanks

A cat without balance? Maybe he thinks he is a dog?

Sorry to hear that.

Cats are pretty intolerant of dressing up.

[Evan]

We just trained our cat to climb back overboard when he fell in. He fell in more than 33 times when we stopped counting...

[Tnflakbait]

Originally Posted by Evan

We just trained our cat to climb back overboard when he fell in. He fell in more than 33 times when we stopped counting...

Why does your cat fall overboard so much?

[Evan]

He was clumsy. Also he would go into the dinghy and catch fish. If a breeze came up, it would drift away from the big boat. He would get impatient waiting for the dinghy to drift closer, and just jump in the water and swim back to the big boat.

[scotte]

Originally Posted by Tnflakbait

Well, I just went out shopping. When I left the cat had a life jacket. When I returned just now he was sitting there without a life jacket. I can't find it either.

Is your anchor still on the bowsprit? Maybe your cat took off the life jacket, wrapped the anchor rode around it, and sent the whole thing down to Davey Jones Locker?

You'll probably find the jacket wedged in some little space where he was able to wriggle out of it.

[Hud3]

you might as well forget about it.

We tried a life preserver on our cat. She immediately went into a sloppy drunk impression, flopping and falling down, trying to back out of it. I've never seen anything like it! She hated the darn thing. We finally gave up. In all our cruising, she never fell overboard, but then again, she hardly ever went topside. She's a real scaredy-cat.

[roverhi]

Way more important than a life jacket is a way for your cat to get back on board the boat. Cat's swim just fine but can't last forever if stuck in the drink. We always left a line or two hanging overboard and trained the cat to find them and climb back on board. We learned this the hard way losing a young cat left on the boat at anchor.

Aloha
Peter O.
Pearson 35

[Dave the Canuck]

My cruising buddy, Oliver (see photo), wonders if you've tried a 15lb Bruce? He swears by them. Apparently no cat has ever wriggled off when properly secured.

[Catamount]

We tried a life jacket on our cat, too, and she also became the "drunken" kitty. We since learned that while we humans get a lot of information about our state of balance from our ears, cats apparently get a lot of that information from their shoulders (or something like that). This is why they all loose their balance and crawl around like they are drunk when we try to put them in dog-style life jackets.

[Vega1860]

Bree is a good swimmer, as are most cats. When she was younger she was quite an acrobat, climing all over the boat, and fell in frequently. The only problem we had with that was that she wold invariably run immediately to our bed and dry herself on our pillow. Then I would have to grab her and give her a fresh water rinse and towel dry. Now that she has matured somewhat (She is 12 now) she stays below most of the time when we are under way and rarely leaves the boat.

Laura put together a video of our feline crew member made up of clips taken while we were crossing the Pacific in 2007 that she posted on YouTube yesterday. Click the link below to check it out.