Cruising Cats ?

[pinocchio]

We are fulltime liveaboards - and our cat has been with us on the boat since she were a large kitten (3 months old).

And she adapts very well to the sailing life!

1. Litter Tray
We keep this next to the toilet, she (or we) is not having any problems with that. Dont think we could teach her to use the toilet - and I'm certain we cannot teach her to use the pumps afterwards

2. Litter
Normally just in the water - when in harbour or anchoring the "not so nice parts" are first collected to be thrown away with other garbage in next harbour (or when at sea)

3. Behaviour when sailing
In daylight she sleeps, likes to tuck away in a small "cave" we arrange in the cockpit, build of pillows etc.

In the night she wakes up, and wants to play. This includes jumping on the decks, climbing the biminis/sprayhood, climbing the boom (the mainsail is apparently enough "foothold" for her), sometimes she tries to climb the mast but even 2 paws of very sharp claws can not get any hold on the aluminiummast ;-) - but she can climb/jump as high as the boom using the various ropes which comes from the mast.

Or just lies on ones lap :-)

When the "going gets rough" she behaves at night as in daylight: i.e. hide in her little "cave".

On longer distances we place the food, water and littertray in the cockpit, so she doesnt have to climb the ladder down in the cabin.

Climbing the boom when reaching is a bit nervewrecking, we must admint - so sometimes we put her in harness, which she now have learnt means "calm down and stay put"

4. In harbour
We allow her to run freely most of the time - she visits other boats, goes ashore, climb trees - and probably other things we don't want to know about ...

She sleeps all day (almost), when dusk comes she wake up, stretches, visit the neighbourboats to see if anything interesting have appeared, "miauvs" a bit to see if any of us wants to have a walk with her - and starts her nightlife on the pontoons and on the land.

Sometimes in the late evenings we "walk the cat" - she then follows us, nosing around on her way, but always only 10-30 meters away from where we walks - and normally react on the sound of her name - i.e. shows she is still around.

Until now she has allways come back to the boat - only in Portugal she disappeared for 4 days but luckily we found her nearby (we reckon she got disoriented in some way or another - but she is not very talkative about her life away from the boat ...), and in Gibraltar she slept on a nearby motorboat - which the harbourmaster for some reason moved to another part of the harbour. We only noticed that the motorboat was gone - whis caused a bit of panic!

5. Paperwork
Ahh - this is awful - different regulations, requirements etc. Though EU now has made some uniform rules regarding travelling with pets. But only the paperwork is a problem - until now nobody has ever cared to look at the papers.

It actually depends of which part of the world you travel in, from where you come from etc. EU now has rules for this, which are uniform all over (except, UK, Sweden, Norway and Ireland I think it is - they are more strict).

Papers we have:
a. animal-passport
b. health certificate
c. rabies certificate
d. ear-tattoo certificate

We have sailed with "Trille" from Denmark, via Scotland and Ireland (cat not allowed ashore), to Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Marocco and Italy (no problems), Tunesia (no problems), Malta (were only allowed to anchor off in the harbour), Greece and Turkey (no problem)

When travelling on airplane with the cat it is a bit of a nuissance: not every airline allows pets, if the plane stops in the UK: no pets aboard, extra charge for transportation, new rabies-vaccination etc.

But all in all we enjoy the company of our cat - only question is: can cats do dogswim

[sv_makai]

Though many of the people we have met while cruising have dogs. We have met a large number of people with one or more cats. Cats adapt well and are easier to deal with on a boat IMO. Don't have to walk them.

We have 2 and they are doing well in the Caribbean.

[russeasby]

Hi, I have some questions for those out there cruising with cats.

Litter box. Where do you put yours? On the boat I am thinking of buying there seems to be no real good location, its a monohull with a pretty traditional layout. I was thinking of maybe converting the quarterberth into a kitty area, which will include the litter box. But I would like to hear where others place their litter boxes.

Food and water while under way. How do you keep food and water available for the cats while underway and heeled over? Food I cant imagine is a big problem, but water? At sea I would imagine it would just slosh right out of any bowl you put it in for the cat. While this is not a big problem on short legs of less then 1 day, what about major passages, kitty needs water. What solutions does everyone else use?

Thanks

[Mike]

Just us a large water bottle similar to the ones you use for hamsters. That will solve any spillage problem

[Holding Pattern]

Maybe we were just lucky but our girls took to the boat so well, we wondered if they were as smart as we previously thought. But we did things progressively. We moved 90% of our things onboard and then brought them in a separate trip. Many things onboard already smelled like them and we brought their old (still good condition of course) litterbox so they were familiar.
We moved them on during one hell of a blow. They wobbled for a few minutes & then settled in as if nothing had happened.
They are quite indifferent to the engine & love to be in the cockpit with us. We use the Crystals litter, no clumping so the bilge is happy. We clean & vacuum regularly so hair & anything tracked is not around. They never go outside without us and lifeline netting was a must before moving them on. When we heel, they tuck into the aft berth & sleep.
No more loose catnip, but we dry it and tuck their toys inside so the smell is there...I truly think they are happier here than the apartment - Holding Pattern is so much more 3-dimentional for them.
They provide so much entertainment also!

Our poor cat had a far more traumatic transition. When we gat her, we had a house in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We hauled in all of our water, so she had never seen a bigger body of water than what was in her bowl. She had also never seen running water. We house sat for a week before moving onto the boat, and this was her first introduction to running water. THen, she was moved aboard the boat, but we were still on the hard. After about another month, we put in, and she was surronded by water. Our first trip, as chronicled in the thread Things that went wrong, was very traumatic for my wife and I, and for the cat, I can not imagine. She has adopted to dockside life, but she does not appreciate it when we go out. In fact, if we start the engine before she is locked in, she will disappear onto another boat. We have built a litter box cover on deck, and she has her corner of the cabin. We are never underway for longer than 24 hours with her on board, so water is not a problem. Unfortunately, she does get seasick, but I have had some very good suggestions to help that. Aside from being underway, the cat seems quite happy on the boat.

[Talbot]

When visiting a house in Florida, I noticed a device which would have benefits for those with cats onboard. It was an electric litter box - no not to zap the cat, but this was triggered after a cat had visited and then left the box. It raked through the litter and deposited any clumps/lumps into a sealed box. This minimised the smell and also meant that the litter did not need to be changed as frequently.

If I have mentioned this before, forgive an advanced stage of senile decay

[Mareva]

Hi All,

Newbie user here. I read over this thread on cats, and there are so many great suggestions on coping with cats on board. You guys are awesome!

We are planning a circumnav in another two or so years. Right now we are catless (my 20 year old, Mittens, sadly passed away last August. Brilliant life she had, though. We should all be so lucky.) and so are considering whether or not to indoctrinate a new cat into the cruising lifestyle. I would LOVE to have another cat (my life feels rather empty!), but if this is going to seriously interfere with a circumnav (especially re regulations) then perhaps it is better to wait.

Is anyone (or has anyone) cirumnavigated with a cat or dog on board? How did you find the regulations? Could you manage, or were you severely restricted in where you could go?

Thanks for any help or info you can give!
Cheers,
Julie
the Mareva

[Talbot]

you certainly would not be able to visit UK

[Mareva]

Because of quarantine regulations? I think I read somewhere (in various net trawlings) that if the cat stayed on board the boat, it might be possible to visit the UK. Anymore info on this, Talbot?

Also, anyone down in Australia or NZ, would you happen to know anything about pre-quarantine? (I heard we might be able to significantly reduce quarantine time?)

Thanks!
Julie

[Talbot]

Only if you are happy to break the law! The cost of getting this wrong would be far more than you would be happy to pay.

[muskoka]

Actually getting your pets into the UK isn't a problem - we're just going through the process right now with our cats.

First, you have to get the vet to innoculate for rabies etc. and have a microchip inserted in the wee beasties. After one month, the vet needs to draw a blood sample which is sent to a UK lab and verify the chip works. If all is in order, you can take the animals into the UK six months after the blood test is passed without quarantine. With the microchip, they effectively carry an 'animal passport'.

To enter Australia, I believe there is another blood test required six months after the innoculation. For Japan, you actually need to provide 2 rabies innoculations (no clinical basis for this) and the blood tests.

You will also have to make sure to keep the vaccination programme current on a yearly basis.

Cheers, Cameron

[Talbot]

While you are correct, that there is a reasonably easy method of getting pets into UK, You have missed one critical requirement. The pet can only be brought in on a commercial flight or ship. You are not allowed to do exactly the same journey by leisure craft!

We were all expecting to be able to take our pets with us on holiday, and this "minor" requirement has stopped that happening.

[muskoka]

Hmmm - so I guess the drill would be to let my wife & cats take the chunnel to France whilst I sail across to pick them up on the other side. Workable for an extended voyage but obviously no good for a long weekend hop across the channel.

I wonder why there's a difference?

[Alan Wheeler]

Mrs Wheels here,

We use the clumping litter for our two cats / kittens, and we experience no problems. I find it good as you just have to scoop and it is all gone.

We originally started out having the litter box in the pilot house, but now we have located this under our navigation table in the main saloon. I think the key is to make sure the litter tray is dealt too regularly when required.

The clumping litter we use here in NZ also is scented, supposedly.

Regards
Dawn