How to Kitten-Proof Your Boat

Have you ever been tempted to take a kitten aboard? So many hungry strays roam boatyards, restaurants and marinas and it’s hard to resist those soulful green, brown or golden eyes begging to be fed, loved, given a home. After our old ship’s cat died, we managed to refrain from taking on a new feline crew for three years, but now we’ve adopted a kitten and little Smurfy is adding fun, love, joy and lots of complications to our boat routine.

Pros and cons

Let’s start with the cons: A ship’s cat means that you can’t just leave the boat somewhere and fly home or travel inland. More and more countries are introducing complicated rules and fees for yachts arriving with pets. Pet food and kitty litter aren’t available everywhere and have to be stored somewhere additionally to all the other gear the human crew needs. There are some modifications necessary on the boat to keep the kitten safe and comfy.

The pros: A kitten that has it’s paws and curious little nose in every job you try to do just adds fun to every project. There’s nothing sweeter than having a little furball welcome you home excitedly (even if you’ve just been away for half an hour) and there’ s no better companion during a nightwatch than a warm, purring body on your lap.

Parasites and vaccinations

We found our Smurfy in a village in Vanuatu: 1 pound of cat and 350 fleas went home with us. To clean up a flea-ridden kitten you need a flea comb, a bowl of water (to drown the fleas you pick before they can hop away) and lots of patience. Best wear something in a light uni-color to spot fleas attempting to escape to a new host. Afterwards we put a drop of flea poison (Frontline or similar products are available at most pharmacies) on to kill off eggs. The next day we packed our little crew member into a card board box again and took the bus to the vet to get him dewormed, microchipped and vaccinated.

Basic gear

Any plastic box will work as a toilet. Some cruisers use fake grass mats and rinse the mat after each business, but we decided to buy kitty litter. Silicate litter works best as it’s light and efficient. Whenever there’s clean, coarse sand available on a beach we use that in between to save kitty litter, but sand needs to be changed every two days or it gets very smelly. We put the toilet on a non-skid mat in a quiet corner below deck, showed Smurfy just once and he immediately understood, even though he had never seen a toilet before. 

Cat’s are naturally clean animals.

Additionally you’ll need one bowl for water and another one for food. Cats love cardboard boxes to sleep in, play with and to use as sea berths underway—no special bed needed! And of course lots of toys—the more improvised and home-made the better.

Companionway

If you have a deck salon yacht or a companionway with low steps, even a small kitten will have no problem hopping up and down. Our SY Pitufa features a steep, five foot ladder with 6 rungs—an insurmountable obstacle for Smurfy. We bought a plastic tube (about 3 inch diameter), wrapped a coarse jute string tightly around it and tied it next to the ladder. Our baby cat immediately knew how to climb that cat tree, but teaching him how to safely get back down (by turning around and going in reverse) took a week. Cats grow incredibly fast, he soon was big enough to manage the ladder, but he still loves his cat tree to race up and down and sharpen his claws—even if you don’t necessarily need one you might still install such a pole just as a toy and fitness device for the feline crew!

Safety

Our first ship’s cat Leeloo was already eleven years old when we moved aboard—a very reasonable and cautious lady. We still installed webbing all around the railing to keep her not from jumping, but from slipping on deck and sliding overboard. She never fell into the water in her 10 years as a full-time ship’s cat. A crazy, recklessly racing kitten is much more at risk, so we immediately tied a new net between toe-rail and lower life line when Smurfy moved in.

Additionally we braided a thick line and let it hang in a loop from Pitufa’s high stern as a kitty-rescue ladder. We let Smurfy climb up that ladder from the dinghy and from a boogie board daily to make sure he knew the emergency procedure. It took him two months of high-risk climbing and jumping maneuvers until he finally slid from the solar panel and splashed into the water. He bobbed back up, swam determinedly to the stern and raced up the braided rope—we hardly had time to get the shower ready to grab him and rinse him with freshwater. Cats need neither swimming lessons nor life vests, they instinctively know what to do when they go overboard. 

On passage

Leeloo stayed safely below deck in rough weather, but Smurfy wants to be out and about, so now he has to wear a harness and leash on passage—not ideal as he gets tangled up everywhere and needs constant supervision, but better than being lost at sea. Leeloo got seasick, so we gave her 1 drop of Stugeron before passages and every 8 hours in rough weather (after asking our vet for meds and dosage), but Smurfy doesn’t mind sailing even in high seas. Cats are just like people: some find their sea legs easily, others need meds to cope.

Birgit and Christian have been cruising since 2011. Find out more about them and their cats on their blog www.pitufa.at. Birgit published a photo booklet about Leeloo with lots of anecdotes and advice: “On Velvet Paws Towards the Horizon” is available on Amazon!

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