The Voyage of the Mighty Tenho: Sailing with a cat

When we brought our cat home from the animal shelter in Alaska in 1998, little did I imagine what a commitment to a cat would someday entail. Skeeker probably would have preferred to remain a land lubber, but without any easy options, we soon realized our little 17+ year old cat would just have to come with us. We tried one overnight trip with her before leaving, and when she survived that, we started the 6 month ordeal…first came the rabies shot and microchip, then the vet-recommended teeth cleaning for her severe and possibly painful tartar buildup (how could we say no?), which involved bloodwork, anesthesia and then also an abscessed tooth pull. We weren’t sure how she’d do across the Atlantic, so my parents graciously babysat her for 6 weeks until our trip home in July from the Azores, when we brought her with us on the plane back to the boat.

Flying with a cat? There are different forms for domestic and international cat travel (and different airline-specific requirements for cat carriers), and the international leg requires a certificate from a vet “authorized to complete EU pet health certificates” and then a separate form (and fee) by the foreign animal export control officer at the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and all within a specified time period before departure.

The trip from the Azores to Lisbon Portugal was the worst…she stopped eating and drinking, and with the swells the first few days she couldn’t even walk around, so we carried her to her litter box and back several time a day. Giving her some anti-seasickness medication seemed to help a little (although the stress of giving a cat a pill is no fun), and at least then she finally ate a few bites.

By now though, she’s gotten into her daily boat life routine. Normally, she sleeps all day long and comes out in the evening to join us in the main cabin on the bench. She’s too chicken to go outside alone, so we occasionally take her out into the cockpit where she sits, sniffing the air enthusiastically and wagging her tail. On very rare occasions she’ll actually walk around the deck. And when we sail and it gets a bit bumpy, she heads for the aft cabin to watch Gilligan’s Island reruns with the kids until it calms down.

As for bringing her back home, we’ll likely have to go through the paperwork thing again for re-entry into the US, although not sure her old bones can make a cross-Atlantic trip should we run into really bad weather…we’ll see how that all works out. In any case, I’m sure she’s going to be glad to be back home in her nice solid house again someday!