For many years SAIL ran a monthly department called "Pets on Boats," which featured photographs of seafaring animals sent in by their proud owners. It disappeared from our pages some time ago for reasons that escape me. It wasn’t a conscious decision; I guess people gradually stopped sending in photos of Rover and/or Kitty, and with so much other material to cram into the mag, we just let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak.

Recently a reader phoned to ask if we still accepted photos of cruising pets. Well, why not? For many people pets are such an integral part of the family that it is inconceivable to go sailing without them. It’s a rare summer day when the launch taking us out to the mooring doesn’t have a couple of large mutts panting happily between the coolers and seabags.

Personally, I’ve never quite understood the compulsion to sail with gigantic dogs. I regularly see boats with one or two or more Labradors or Golden Retrievers lounging in the cockpit and getting underfoot in the tacks. As if the logistics of getting them to and from and on and off the boat aren’t enough, you have to worry about waste disposal. I’ve lost count of the stories I’ve heard and read about dogs that refuse to do their business on board. This means their owners have to take them ashore a couple of times a day, even if it’s blowing a gale and they (the owners) would far rather be belowdecks with a Scotch and a book. No doubt the animals too would far rather be asleep on the couch at home.

There are probably just as many people who sail with cats, and that makes a bit more sense. Not only are cats more fastidious about personal hygiene, they are compact and tend to stay clear of the cockpit when you’re working the boat. On the other hand, cats are fearless and often adventurous, a combination that can lead to tragedy. I well remember my then girlfriend bursting into tears when Robin Lee Graham’s kittens were lost overboard in the movie The Dove (the reactions of some of the teenage males in the audience weren’t quite so sympathetic).

People who sail with dogs and cats are paragons of common sense compared to some pet owners. More than a few sailors cruise with parrots on board; these of course are traditional sailors’ companions, predating even Long John Silver, but that doesn’t make them any more sensible. Squawking and screeching versus barking or meowing? No contest; I’ll take a mammal any day. I’ve also heard of besotted sailors keeping rabbits, reptiles and even hamsters on board; given the latter’s proclivity to escape and to chew on anything they can find, that just seems nuts to me.

But the Pet Lover prize has to go to the Frenchman who rowed an open boat from West Africa to the Cape Verde islands, accompanied only by a monkey. What might have happened had the bananas and peanuts run out? Anyway, you’ll be happy to know that Pets on Boats lives on, within our website. Send photos of your furred or feathered friends to sailmail@sailmagazine.com.

Related article http://sailmagazine.com/cruising/pets_on_boats_zephyr/