Tuesday 8 June Additional crew

How we first saw Polly

We do have a rather special keepsake of our time in the Marquesas. A kitten. She's one of the prettiest little cats, steel grey like a Russian Blue with bright green eyes, tiny as cats go and very affectionate. She was living on a beach in a deserted shack with mice and crabs for company. She was so thin and scrawny she must have been close to death, but remained friendly and trusting. The first day we saw her we went back to the boat to fetch her milk and tuna. The second day we went back we had asked if she belonged to a family, if anyone was feeding her, or if anyone was going to rescue her. Our choice was to leave on the beach to die, or to bring her back to the boat and if she died we had at least tried. There wasn't a choice; we couldn't leave her and the immediate indications were hopeful; clear eyes, clear nose, clean bottom and no skin disease although there were fleas. The first thing when she was aboard was to bath her to remove the fleas. She was immersed in a bucket of water up to her ears and the nasties had to climb onto to her head where we were able to rub and pick them out with cloth and tweezers. Her bones stuck out. She was too weak to protest at being immersed in water and she was so small (660gms, 17cms to the shoulder) we estimated she was 2 months old.

Looking scrawny after her bath

Big ears

Making herself comfortable on the pilot berth

Fast forward 10 days and Polly, as in Polynesia, is a bright young cat. We've reassessed her age to 4 or 5 months old. She's filled out to 1kg, has used her litter tray from the first day, sleeps in the cockpit at night and can now purr audibly. She is soo pretty and cute. Everyone who comes past goes ahh! We never intended to have a boat cat, but now we've got one we're enjoying it. When we're sailing she finds a comfortable corner to sleep. When we go off the boat she finds a comfortable corner in the cockpit to sleep. She's a cat.