Pets on a sailboat, Cat overboard!

The pets have been on the boat for a little over a week. Funny to think of pets on a boat and living at a marina, but there are many. Our neighbor has a cat, and that cat looks content to sun bath on their deck all afternoon.

Our dog Jack seems to have mixed feelings about the boat. He likes to be near us, and the large walking and running areas and trails, and the sun bathing on dock. He doesn't like a 3 year old constantly pestering, poking, or kicking him out of his new bed. And our cat Rock-o he went into hiding the first couple days, in vbirth forward compartment. He finally came out to use the new litter box and find yummy food. We are storing the litter box under the stairs for now, it works ok, but the litter makes a mess - this is a work in progress.

It seemed like the cat was getting used to the small living space, back to his routine of sleeping all day and waking up in the very early morning to play and meow for food thus interrupting our sleep. (Note: We finally moved pets into galley at night and us into vbirth with door closed, this works well.) Until this past Monday morning, instead of having blues of the upcoming work week, we got the early to rise pet and kid morning blues. As I was taking the dog out for a walk around 6 am, the son wanted to go because he was up too, and then the cat decided he wanted to go too. The cat had not been out of the boat since we moved him in. He proceeded to jump onto the dock, similar to how the dog does it, and then he got scared and started to run, he took off down the dock and disappeared. The dog had to go potty and the son was getting restless, so I decided to come back later to look for the cat.

We looked for the the cat all day, called his name, walked up and down the dock, and no cat. My husband even got his guitar out and played it in the evening, this always gets the cat out, but even the music did not work so we went to bed. Very early the next morning I heard footsteps on the deck and sniffing, I immediately knew this was Rock-o. I opened the hatch and he jumped in, he was soaking wet and must have taken a swim. I got a towel out and dried him, fed him, and I went back to bed.

We thought about his journey home that morning, and were amazed he made it back to the boat in the middle of night and after a dip in the water. He is a pretty tough cat to end up swimming in the middle of the night in cold water and making it back to the boat safely. Now his fur is shinny and his gunky eye looks clean. The dip in the salt water cleaned him up nicely.

Lately, we are trying to get him in a routine of eating his food in evening when he rises after sleeping all day. Then letting him come out on the deck without jumping overboard by coaxing him back inside the cabin before he gets too scared and bolts down the dock. He then proceeds to do his nocturnal activities, and as usual up in early morning demanding more food, as is the dog.

Some mornings they are just too demanding, ugh!