A furry stowaway!

[RollingWanderer]

So, this evening after dinner my wife and I decided to go for a quick spin in the boat. We live on Lake of the Ozarks and keep the boat on a lift in a covered dock about 50' from our back door. Since the dock is covered and we take it out every couple of days I rarely bother to cover it.

As my wife, son (2 yr old) and I get a few hundred yards from our dock a small furry stowaway shoots out from under the dash on the passenger side runs across and hits my legs then heads to the bow. Our boat is only a 19' bow rider, so it's not exactly a big boat. As I'm trying to figure out what just happened I see a cat sitting on one of the seats up in the bow. My wife also sees the cat and starts to tell me to grab it. I'm not so sure as I don't want to get scratched and bit by some cat scared out of its mind, but I do start to throttle down. I made one move from my seat towards the cat and it jumped before we even came completely off plane!

Here we are 50+ yards from shore, a cat has just gone overboard at around 20mph and made a huge splash. I quickly pull the throttle all the way to neutral and start to look for the cat. The lake is around 90' deep where we are and we have no idea if the cat has even survived the jump. Scanning the water we see the cat. My wife is wanting me to try and save the cat, but I'm not sure how to pluck this thing from the water in a relatively safe manner. The cat doesn't care about my dilemma and is swimming for the shore. We idled behind the cat as it made it all the way to shore, climbed out, and ran off into woods. I had NO IDEA that cats were such good swimmers, though I think he may have used atleast 1 or 2 lives!

Next time I'll be checking for stowaways before we head out!

-RW

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: A furry stowaway!

Oh yeah - cats don't LIKE to swim (generally) but they certainly CAN. Our family cat used to like to nap in the bow of our boat. Usually scampered out if we came into the boathouse and started untying the boat and such. Occasionally, she didn't. She also made the jump for shore a few times and, indeed, swam in.

 

[OldePharte]

Re: A furry stowaway!

At least it was a domestic cat and not a bobcat or a racoon.

Bob, also at LOTO

 

[MikDee]

Re: A furry stowaway!

That must have been a hair raising experience till you found out what it was? And yes, you did the right thing, I wouldn't go anywhere near a scared wet cat either but, I'm glad it was not a more dangerous animal, and it all worked out okay

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: A furry stowaway!

Now that's catfishing!

I watched a feral cat once hunting at the edge of the marsh in water up to its belly. When I approached it sank down until its head was just above water and then ran off. It had been surviving on a barrier island full of raccoons. Wouldn't want ot mess with that one.

 

[JB]

Re: A furry stowaway!

Cats and swimming are like Matthew Quigley and handguns; They don't have much interest in it, but if need be they are really good at it.

 

[ziggy]

Re: A furry stowaway!

when i was a kid, i ask dad if cats could swim. he said yes of course. but i just had to see. tossed my poor ol tigger (rip) off the end of the dock. man, can cats swim. i swear his whole upper torso was out of water he was swimming so good. took him about 2 weeks to get to liking me again after the toss though. wouldn't have a thing to do with me for awhile after that.

maybe you could have a new ships cat in the making there too. i take my cat out once in a while. she does real good too. though i've not tossed her in. and have no intenetion of doing that to my cat now. i know she can swim. if need be...