"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
oups.com...
As those reading our logs already know (links below for the lists
where this note is going but to which I've not been putting up my
logs), we've acquired a guest.

Lydia's original thought (well, excuse, anyway, which allowed her
aboard) had been that the kitten, now named Portia, would go to my
brother. However, he's sworn off cats for now, having had them for
the last 40 or so years but wishing to be petless for a while.

Of course, she's worming her way into our lives, and all the resolve
that Lydia had previously about why pets aboard wouldn't make sense
for us is turning to mush.

Practical concerns have to do with our leaving the boat, as well as
entry/departure from various foreign countries, assuming we ever do
something different than cruise the US (we had expected to start in
the Bahamas and work our way south, spending, essentially, the rest of
our lives in the Eastern Caribbean).

These are the concerns we see:

Leaving the boat, whether for a day trip, or for an extended period,
even with cats being pretty self-reliant, would be a problem in that
we'd have to close up the boat, which, in hot climates, could be
deadly over time, inside heat building as it would.

Additionally, if we were to try to do side trips, we'd have to
provide, somehow, for her care, if no more than someone to come check
on her and replenish the water and food.

She's young enough that she might become acclimated to the motion of
the boat, but our seeing various pets on other boats, in their misery,
convinced Lydia that having a pet aboard would be selfish at best.

We assume she can be toilet trained, as many cats are, very
successfully, but there's the accumulated stuff which must be aboard
for her care to consider, and, if we can deal with the being-gone bits
such that we can, indeed, leave the boat, we'll have to figure out a
litter arrangement.

So, please, responses from those who have successfully dealt with the
above, and, as well, if there are other issues which we've overlooked
or about which we are ignorant.


You have demonstrated time and time again that you two are ignorant
about almost everything about sailboats and, in particular, seamanship
and safety. I would advise against you two acquiring any pet if for no
other reason than the odds are great any pet would soon become a
drowning victim. Maybe a small, salt water aquarium with a couple
colorful salt water fish would be just the ticket? They, at least, might
have a chance when your boat founders.

Wilbur Hubbard