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Being lovers both of cats and of canal boating, Wendy
and I now have plenty of experience of boating with our cats. For a summary of
the cats who've shared our home, click
here.
Lucky,
Summer 1978
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We've never thought it a good idea to take cats on
hire-boats, so our first opportunity to take them with us was when we
bought our first boat, the original Felis Catus, in 1977. But at that
time we had 5 cats, and the the thought of transporting them all to and from
the boat by train was too much for us. Fortunately we had the services of a
very good cat-sitter in the person of one of our Sixth Form students.
But Roger & Chris, our co-owners in Felis
Catus, had a cat, Lucky, who did come from time to time.
Caligula, 1980
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In 1980, David, our cat-sitter, told us that one cat,
Caligula, got very bad-tempered with the others while we
were away, so that year we took Caligula with us on our
longer trips. There are a few interesting stories from that period, one of
which can be found by clicking here. We parted with the original Felis
Catus in 1982 and went back to hiring again.
Arlecchino
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Our regular boating with cats started in 1990 when we
took delivery of Felis Catus II. At that time we had two cats,
Arlecchino (left) and Dido, and we
decided to acclimatise them to the boat, starting with a Spring cruise in 1991.
Since then we've never gone on more than about a 3-day trip without taking our
current cats with us. By the middle of that Summer, our current practice of
letting the cats roam freely at night had developed. In August 1992,
Arlecchino went missing at Wilmcote (Stratford-on-Avon
Canal). After 3 days waiting and searching for him, there was no sign, and we
concluded that the locals who opined that he had been taken by a fox were
probably right.
Orinthia
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So Dido
was our sole feline boating companion for a while, until the next summer, when
a stray who had been visiting us at home decided to move in full-time, and
perforce joined the boating crew as well. Now named
Orintihia, she was with us for several years, later as
Senior Cat. Dido died of old age over the winter of 1997/8,
and we replaced her by a kitten, Tilly (short for
Attila the Pun), who in August 1998 became the youngest cat
(at just 3 months) we had ever taken boating, and who took to it very
rapidly.
Tilly
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In the early Summer of 1999
Orintihia decided that Tilly's youthful
energy was too much for her to put up with, so she moved out and adopted one of
our neighbours, who has since left the area. So our Summer boating that year
was with just one cat.
During our Summer boating in 2000, Tilly lost sight
of the idea of coming back for breakfast when we were at a mooring where there
was plenty to explore, so costing us several days' cruising. See the trip
report here for the
story. So by September 2000 we were rethinking our strategy with her, and also
thinking about getting another kitten to be company for her.
Mandy as a kitten
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2001 and 2002 were years when we did little boating
(for various reasons), and in particular Tilly didn't come with us on any
trips. So 2003 was to be the year of her re-introduction to boating. We also at
last acquired another cat, Mandy (short for Amanda) who
came to us in May aged about 11 weeks. By early June we'd taken them both for a
long weekend of local pottering. Mandy took to it very well, only making the
most tentative visits to the shore for a few minutes at a time, but then so far
she was almost totally an indoor cat at home as she wasn't yet big enough to
work the cat flap. Tilly, however, was still in "dirty stop-out" mood, so we
were now trying to think of an alternative strategy for her. The first thing to
try was feeding her first thing in the morning, once the boat starts moving.
We'd let her out in the evening, but not feed her until much later at night,
then shut her in. Watch this space to learn whether it works!
Mandy on the landing stage at
Binsey
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The Summer cruising was characterised by very hot
weather, which I think influenced how things developed. We covered the side
hatches and larger windows with insect netting, so as to allow fresh air into
the cabin, but not allow the cats out. This meant they were comfortable during
the day. To start with we followed the plan for how to treat the cats in the
evenings and it worked pretty well. But then we noticed a new pattern emerging.
Mandy is a very people-attached cat, so didn't want to be out for very long at
a time. And by now Tilly was quite fond of Mandy (after an initial few weeks of
suspicion), so would come back for her company. By the end of the summer, we
had been able to revert to letting them out freely at night, and they would be
back by the time we wanted to start boating.
2004 was another year of not much boating, and for
most of 2005 our boating was punctuated by one or other of us having to return
to London every now and then, so se decided not to take the cats with us.
Mandy exploring the
new boat, Dec.2005
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Tilly starts to settle in, Dec.2005
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In December 2005 we moved home onto our new boat,
Felis Catus III, bringing Tilly and Mandy with us. (for information
about this new boat, see here). After an
initial couple of days sulking because of the journey in their travelling
baskets, they began to relax and settle in, and at the time of writing are
still discovering new hidey-holes inside the boat. |
