We have always been cat people, not only the multihull kind of cat, but the feline kind too. We had a wonderful cat in Annapolis whom we gave to friends before we left, thinking that a pet on board was one distraction that we could do without. Well, now with a few more miles under our belt, we have decided that we are ready for a boat cat. Of course this decision was partly driven by the fact that our good friends down the dock in Barcelona have just taken delivery of 5 adorable kittens. Cuca the cat snuck out one week and apparently found a mate. Once our girls got an eyeful of the litter, and it was all but a done deal. They were born in early March, which made for perfect timing for our departure in April.

Cuca and her kittens.

The hassles of having a pet on board are somewhat lessened in the European Union. They have a "pet passport" that is common to all EU member countries and contains all of the vaccination and health records of the animal. The passport necessitates an electronic chip be injected into the animal's neck; this didn't hurt me a bit but the cat did some serious yelping. Now, when we go to a new country, we should not have to deal with a quarantine or health exam. Of course our plan is to keep the cat as a "boat cat", not to be taken off the boat unless absolutely necessary.

EU pet passport.

As for the worst part of cat ownership, the litter box, we are trying the Astroturf method. Basically the idea is that you cover the litterbox bottom with a piece of Astroturf. Then you sprinkle a bit of kitty litter on top. After the cat does his business, you just dunk the Astroturf over the side. We actually hang it off the stern on a small line and drag it for a while. So far this has worked well, but we have yet to try the Astroturf sans litter. For the litter box itself, we were a bit overwhelmed at the prices in Barcelona for a plain old plastic litterbox with a cover, about 60 Euro or $85. No way were we going to spend that for a litterbox. We found a 2 Euro storage bin and used a hot knife to cut a hole in the side. Voila, a fine litterbox, and even decorated with the Barcelona football team's logo.

The cat has pretty good sea legs, but when it turns lumpy, he has hurled his lunch a couple of times. We are hoping that this is a temporary condition and he gets over it soon. He is amazingly resilient in that after he throws up, he just takes a little nap and is fine thereafter. It is really nice on night watch to come down to the cabin for some sleep and to have a warm cat to curl up with. That is, so long as he is in a sleeping mode and not attack mode. The kids are over the moon to have him, and to tell the truth, we are too. He adds greatly to the generally happiness of the ship.

Anchor watch

Oh, and the name of this new cat? We went back and forth and forth and back but since we are multihull people, we all finally settled on - are you ready for this? - Hobie.

Hobie stands watch as we dinghy to shore.