Boat Pets

[meridiansahoy]

G'day Sailnetters,

Has any cruiser had one? I'm thinking pretty simply here. Like a newborn cat, or the remote possibility of a small breed of pup.

Pros:
- Eat the things on boats that attract other unwanted pests.
- Great company for me when the miss'us is asleep.
- Great company for her when she's awake and jealous of me being off watch.

Cons:
- Customs in Australia, Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, etc.
- The general well being of the pet and the added hassle of it's health.
- Our attachment to it were it to be put down or caged by authorities.

Experiences, evidence, opinion, comment, flaming, and trolling are all welcome.

Cheers

[blt2ski]

If you want a pitbull, or that type, there is a 500 post thread or some such wacked out number of posts in one of the area's.........

Otherwise, watch out for CD, he has some little fugly bulldog thingymabob with spikes on its collar.............

Reality is, folks seem to cruise with dogs and cats, even a few with bird/parrot type thingies too!

For me tho......I went with cute!

[jimjazzdad]

Cute? They are good looking AND just the right size!

[blt2ski]

Jim,

CD is not going to like your comment after mine......LLOLLOLOLOL!

I can hear him scream from some where SW of FL all the way here to the NW US! LOLOLOLOL

Here is a pic CD really dislikes! LOLOL




marty

[Me and Boo]

Ensign Boo is always ready to sail.

[sww914]

Our dog loves it. Totally worth it. I wish that she'd figure out that it's OK to use the potty mat. 52 hours and no potty.
She's our dolphin early warning system.

[irmedic]

I have a miniature Dash and she loves sailing. Bear in mind you will have to likely go ashore twice a day to take care of business and walk around with bags of poo.

[flyingwelshman]

I have thousands of pet fish. I just let them swim along with the boat.
They are very easy to look after as they don't need feeding etc.
Every now and then I'll eat one, just to keep the others on their toes.

[MarkofSeaLife]

Cons:
- Customs in Australia,

It's not Customs in Australia. It's Quarantine. When we cleared in there without a pet we were chatting to the Quarantine guy and he said the average cost of having a dog on a boat in Australia was $2,000 per MONTH.

So be very very carfull about glibly taking a pet!

Cost involves a Quaranite officer comming to your boat at anchorage (you are not allowed to go to a marina whilst in Australia) and collecting the dog poop... At $220 per hour, or there part of....

No you can't trash the poop yourself!

[meridiansahoy]

Hey There SL,

There would be nothing glib about our decision to take a dog with us, that is for sure. For the sake of this thread I think we can take Australia out of the list. We've got a pretty good handle on Australian Customs and Quarantine procedure.

Are there any experiences from folks headed up through SE Asia they'd like to share?

Cheers
MA