We cruise with our two cats - the female is about 16 (I think) and the
male about 4. Neither would chose a car or boat to their idyllic
lifestyle at home, but they get used to wheeled and water transport in a
very short time. The female just lounges around all day long; the male
hides under the bed spread as soon as he hears the engine alarm sound
before starting the engines in the morning, then comes out once the
engines stop for the day and romps around all over the boat (seemingly
having a good time). I keep a Chesapeake crab net handy in case the male
misses a corner turn when he's "running the decks" at night. They also
travel back and forth in rental cars when we have to leave the boat at
some location to travel home.

BTW, cats are natural swimmers - they just prefer their water in a
container, given a choice.

None seems to be the worse for wear, and they've never missed meal call!

<><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><>
Bob McLeran and Judy Young                Manatee Cove Marina
M/V Sanderling                            Patrick Air Force Base
Hampton 35 Trawler                        Melbourne, Florida

On 5/9/2007 4:25 PM, fred wrote:

Hi Fred,
With more than a little trepidation, we left our dock in Corpus Christi, TX,
with Cinder (9yrs) and Rosie (7yrs) on board March of 2006.  Our intent was
to do the Loop.  Our boat was a 38-ft single engine slow Taiwan Trawler.

Both cats would disappear when guests entered our house. Neither of the cats
was particularly fond of car travel.  We did not know how they would take to
living on a boat.

To make our boat cat friendly, we wrapped empty cardboard carpet tubes with
sisal rope to turn our table pedestals into scratching posts.  We dismantled
their cat trees and took the den parts on the boat.  I used a product called
Feleway, which is a spray that helps calm cats.  You spray it, for example,
inside a travel crate 10 minutes or so before loading the cat.  You do not
spray it on the cat!  We brought their regular litter box and used the same
litter.  We fed them the same food and gave them the same bottled water.
All this was to make them feel at home.

We also got them microchipped just in case.

I think living on a boat was good for Cinder and Rosie.  They adjusted much
faster than we expected.  They learned to stay out of the engine room when
Jim opened the cabin floor to do something down there.  We kept them in the
cabin when under way, at a marina, or when aligators were nearby.  This
meant we had to run the air condidioning more than we would have if just the
two of us were on board.  We could open the windows and the cats did not try
to escape through the screens, but some days we really need the doors on
both sides open for sufficient cross ventilation to cool the cabin.

After living on the boat, both cats seemed calmer and more self-assured.
When someone came onboard, they did not hide.  They enjoyed watching the
activities on the docks or the waterways by looking out the windows.  Rosie
was facinated at first by bridges.  She would sit on the console by the
front window and crane her neck to watch the underside of the bridge pass
overhead.

If you are concerned about tender tummies, you might try Hill's sensitive
stomach food.  Until we knew they were acclimated, we fed the cats about 3
a.m. to give them time to digest some food and use the litter box before we
started out.  They thought the 3 a.m. feeding was great.  I think they
wondered why it took us so many years to figure that they were supposed to
be fed at that time.  they certainly had reminded us enough times. We did
not have any trouble falling back asleep for a few more hours after feeding
them.

I don't know your cats, but I can say that we have learned that cats can be
more resilient that they let on.  We estimate that in one year, our cats
traveled with us almost 8,000 miles by boat or automobile.

Annie

...>I wonder if anyone has any suggestions that might help me with older