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Bella 'Claws' McCaw is, actually, the Sub-Editor of MarineZine, but she has kindly agreed to look after this
page, in the absence of any other volunteer at the moment. On this page, she will turn her attention to matters concerning pets who live
aboard and ashore.
To help Bella maintain a balanced interest in the welfare of four legged pets, we
recruited a puppy...we met a family who had arrived in Bermuda with a three
month old puppy and the captain unwell. The local authorities could not allow the
animal to come ashore or even to remain aboard the boat for the several months
the family would need to be staying. Unless someone would take the dog on, he
was doomed to be put down.
'Batty' as we called him, because he looked a bit like a bat when his ears
were sticking up, was half miniature Doberman Pinscher and half Chihuahua. He
was tiny and had the
courage of a lion. His former family are vegetarians so he only had his first taste of meat
when he came aboard - he was just beginning to develop what looked like signs of
rickets, a malformation of the bones, visible at the 'knee' joins on the front
paws, due to lack of proper feeding.
Batty had been taken from his mother at only
two weeks old which is, quite frankly, far too soon. We fed him carefully
with a special diet to try and help his body acquire the building
materials it had so far lacked. He slept a lot but was very active when awake and
seemed a splendid
addition to our floating 'family'.
Unfortunately, he found living aboard at
sea quite difficult and even when we arrived in the Azores and the boat was
alongside, he could never get the hang of using one place as a lavatory but,
instead, simply allowed himself to answer nature's call wherever he happened to
be and even chose quite awkward places to get to - our beds and luggage for
example!
After two weeks in a marina, with the locals admiring the way he
barked fiercely any time anyone came near the boat and several offers of a home
being made, we found a family with a big garden to give him to and all seemed to
have resolved itself admirably.
Sadly, only a week later, the gentleman whose
seven year old son had been so happy to have Batty come to live with them, told
us on the Sunday morning that he had had to take Batty to the vet on the Friday
as he seemed to be in pain and the poor pup had had to be put down as he was
suffering from severe internal bleeding, possibly brought on by something sharp
he had ingested, although a virus might have been responsible, apparently.
We did notice,
when Batty first came to live with us that
he often seemed to wince when picked up, although he was being supported
properly.
Perhaps there was something wrong all along, although he ran about, leaped
around like a healthy animal and ate plenty. We were very sad to hear of his
end. Although we hadn't planned to have a dog aboard, he had certainly endeared
himself to us in the short time he travelled with us.
Your pets should be encouraged to help Bella by telling her all about their experiences along the
way.
Where are the kindly vets to be found?
Who supplies pet foods and at what cost? What brands are available?
Is it safe to go ashore? What problems have you encountered, and solved,
involving your travelling pets?
How does your human cope with your answers to the calls of nature on board?
The answers to these and many other questions are of paramount interest to Bella Mc
Caw.
When she isn't wandering about the place, looking for delicate cables to snip
through, teak to reduce to splinters or peach stones to crack open with a
single movement, Bella, who is nine years old, resides in a purpose-built cage
on the aft deck. She has bits of rope to climb on and tease the ends of, a bell
to jangle, a couple of perches at different heights and all the usual containers
for food and water plus sticks made up of seeds, dried fruits and nuts to pick
at and a cuttle-fish bone to peck on.
Alpha Canvas and Upholstery company, in Chaguaramas,
Trinidad, West Indies, who made new cockpit cushions, awnings and sail-covers for
us, in 1999, is run by a dashing young gentleman by the name
of Carlos Fensom and his family. His father is a bird enthusiast and Carlos was kind enough
to make a very snazzy cage cover for Bella for the price of the materials only,
to match the new livery.
At anchor, only half the cover is in use, plus the part
which covers the top of the cage ( all joins are Velcro) to provide shelter from
the sun, with half of that rolled back so that Bella can enjoy the odd shower of
rain that passes through. She clearly considers the cage to be her domain and is
quite territorial about it. If she is wandering about when we start an engine,
she zooms across the deck, scuttling as fast as her claws will carry her and
scrambles into the cage!
Unfortunately, in 1998, when our boat was out of the
water for nine weeks, Bella started pulling her chest feathers out and
has continued to do so, in spite of all our efforts to establish the
cause and treat it.
It isn't boredom, she will stop playing with you to
pull out a budding feather. We treated her for mites, although she
didn't appear to have any, but that didn't make any difference.
We made
an extra fuss of her, preening and stroking her for longer than usual,
thinking she might be lonely for a mate, but that didn't make any
difference. We tried reducing her intake of proteins on the
recommendation of a very kind and knowledgeable-sounding lady, but that
just made her miserable without seeming to stop the plucking.
We were
given a special spray by kind friends in Bermuda but that didn't stop her
either. We would
love to hear from anyone who has found a way to stop this habit which
seems to us to be just that. A habit. Whatever started it, it seems that
the new feathers growing through irritate her and she plucks them out.
She may have started because it was so hot in Trinidad after the cold of
Europe, for which she had grown an undercoat of down. Any clues?
Some while ago, Bella's excitement caused us to rush up onto the aft deck to see
what was causing the shrieking. Passing our boat, about 100 feet away, was a man
in an inflatable dinghy, heading for a nearby beach. Two dogs, a Rottweiler and
a fox-terrier, were paddling along furiously, behind him. When asked if he
needed help to rescue his dogs from the water, the gentleman laughed and
explained that, no, his dogs had not fallen from the dinghy but were enjoying
their daily swim ashore!
Speaking of dogs, there are some great dog
training and health books over at Electronic Book World that you may like to
have a look at...
Bella, having overcome the vague distaste, which she shares with our captain,
for all things new-fangled, decided to bite the bullet and embrace the Internet.
She has had us go browsing on the World Wide Web for online pet stores and, sure
enough, we managed to find some! We'd be interested to hear of any online pet facilities you know of
- we may even put links to one, or more, of the better ones on this page.
If you dote on your dog, cat, bird or other on-board companion(s) and would like them to have the best time, wherever they
go, persuade them to encourage other pets to share information by participating
themselves.
To show willing and lead the way, Bella, who expects her share of the gourmet
fare aboard Leopard Normand III, thought you might like to know that, if you're
visiting the north-eastern part of Trinidad, West Indies, Hi Lo Supermarket in
Glencoe,
sell packets of Parrot Mix, unsalted peanuts, sunflower seeds, pistachio nuts,
crackers and other goodies at a very reasonable price. Was that a hint we ask
ourselves? Hmm...they also do the full range of foods for other pets, by the
way!
If you want to go sailing but wouldn't be able take your pet
with you, finding someone to look after the animal can be a worrying problem.
The ideal answer may be a visit to the Pet
Sitters website...
If you care to send us a photograph of your pet, we may even start a pets
gallery. We are particularly curious to know what unusual pets our readers
travel with or have to leave behind... If yours falls into the latter category,
the great people who run the Pet Sitters website might be able to help you next
time around. To see what they are all about and check for availability of this
service in your area
Click Here!
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