Jib Notes

The latest adventure in Quixote the boat cat's life involved a little swim. One night a couple days ago Jeremy decided to work in the cockpit for a change. This turned out to be very fortunate for our mischievous furball.

There are several duck-like birds that hang out on a nearby boat. Sometimes they will hang out temptingly close to the boat. On this particular evening one of the birds landed in the water very near to where our kitty was resting on the deck. This was too much for him to bear and he made the leap. He must have swallowed a lot of sea water when he fell because he didn't let out even a little meow. We would have never known that he was in the water if Jeremy hadn't heard the splash.

It turns out that he is a good little swimmer. Quixote swam around the entire boat trying to find a way back up while Jeremy climbed into the dinghy to fetch him. He came to Jeremy when we called him and he was rescued. He was a humble and miserable looking cat when we got him back on deck.

Unfortunately for Quixote his torture was not over yet. He insisted on licking himself clean and I was concerned that all that salt would make him sick. I decided to give him a little bath in the cockpit. I heated some water in a pot and poured it over him much to his dismay. Then I scrubbed him dry with a towel and wrapped him up. The poor guy just sat in my lap defeated, wheezing like an old man.

It took a few days before Quixote wanted to be outside without supervision. Now he is back to his usual obnoxious self. He has just figured out a technique to get him outside while we are sleeping. We recently purchased a board that we cut to fit the middle of vberth. Now we have a complete bed and are no longer separated from each other. Quixote has realized that if he takes a running leap onto the middle cushion in the vberth he bounces off of the cushion and shoots straight through the forward hatch. This new activity wakes me every time he does it, of course. He is lucky he is cute.