More on Traveling with Pets!

Jan 29, – continued.
Lat/Lon 26, 42.9 N, 80 3.2 W

We have a lot of friends and family watching our blog. People from Anacortes, Spokane, & Boise, and from areas in Oregon, California, Montana, and even Tennessee and Alaska! Several of these folks have asked us how the critters are adjusting. And I must say, for the most part, they are doing very well.

Bo is having the time of his life! He’s a travelin’ fool! Heck he’s gotten to ride around by plane, VW bug, sailboat, dingy, and taxi! He gets daily shore leave where he gets to meet a lot of people who ALWAYS pet him and tell him he’s ‘cute’. Honestly, I have never had a dog that get this much attention from total strangers. He is so social!

During shore leave, Bo always gets to run and chase frisbies and water bottles. (Yes, his favorite toys are discarded, partially full water bottles. And he’s got a real gift for finding them.) He gets to go for ‘long walks’ to marine stores. Bo is loving life. He this this whole adventure is solely for his entertainment.

Bo has not, however, used the piece of astro-turf that is bungeed to the bow for his pottying pleasure. He prefers to hold it for 24 to 36 hours at a time. We have tried and tried to get him to use it, but no way. The knucklehead!
Oh, and yesterday, during shore leave, Bo had the lovely opportunity to escape our supervision just long enough to roll in something absolutely nasty! We didn’t realize it until we got in the dingy for the ride back to the boat. I’m telling you, that was the longest dingy ride in my life. I was begging Sid to let me throw him overboard, but sometimes Sid is just too nice for his own good. I considered throwing them both over. Anyway,… Once we got back to the boat, Sid took Bo out on deck and gave him a vigorous scrubbing. * shudder *

Gracie seems to be fine with sailing. It’s always amazed me how kicked back she seems to be. I’ve drug her all over the place and she always seems fine. Nothing really bothers her. She seems to think that as long as I’m around it must be fine, and that I would not take her into unsafe conditions. Although after today, I’m not so sure she still feels that way.

She has a very small cage here, and she really is only inside it at night. The rest of the time, the door is open and she can come and go as she pleases. The cage sits in a small shallow box that catches most of her seed shells and mess. When we are out on the ocean, I bungee the box to the settee. As the boat heals, she leans and adjusts herself very naturally. She perches comfortably on one foot, preens her feathers, and even baths while we are out at sea. She figures this must all be normal, and that I would never allow anything scary to happen to her. The knucklehead!

So today, we were sailing along, bouncing over the swells when a big power boat passed us at very high speed. His wake, combined with the already bumpy sea, sent us pitching pretty good. But it was not until about 15 or 20 minutes later that Sid went below for something, and I heard “Uh Oh! Gracie! Where are you?” I abandoned my post at the helm to stick my head down the companionway. Gracie’s box was firmly bungeed, but her cage was pitched over backward, and everything emptied out on the settee, the seed dish, water dish, and cage bottom stuff was everywhere, and no sign of Grace. The Sid said, “ Oh, here she is down in the bilge.”

“THE BILGE??? OH MY GOD! Is she OK??? Is it full of gunk?” And I ran below to save her.
The bilge, for you land lubbers, is the deep dark hole in the very bottom of the boat where, any leaks or nasty stuff that may exist collects and ‘brews’ until the bilge is pumped out.

Well, fortunately, Quest is a very dry boat, and the bilge has remained dry. (Knock on teak.) So Grace was sitting down there, perched on some water pipes, wondering what the hell just happed and why she was sent ‘ass over tea kettle’ into this dark hole. I pulled her out, and she was largely unscathed except for a fairly major flight feather on her wing had been broken. But fortunately, it broke far enough out that there was very little blood. She is fine, and I will be more cautious about the security of her cage when we go out on the ocean. I will now secure the entire cage, and probably also close her inside it as well.

Her world has returned to ‘normal’. She is sitting in the cockpit with her flock, (us). Enjoying the evening, perched on one foot, preening her feathers, and watching a beautiful sunset. It’s good to be Gracie.