To say that we adore our cat is an understatement. Tack is very much a member of the family (with Tack cradled lovingly in his arms Jeff likes to ask me ‘Are you sure you want to have kids?’).
The truth of the matter is that neither one of us is responsible enough for a child yet, but we have no qualms about spoiling our cat. Jeff has been particularly concerned about Tack’s mental and physical well-being on the boat. A testament to our love of Tack is the latest boat/life improvement project (B/LIP). Last fall we installed tracks for new polycarbonate drop-boards that we had custom made at TAP Plastic (love that place). These drop-boards will be more effective than our splintering wood “door” at keeping the ocean outside of the boat (and letting light in). In order to allow Tack continual access to the out of doors (while still securing our innards from curious thieves) we decided to cut a hole in the lowest drop-board.
Tack and his new cat door. He hasn’t quite figured it out yet.
The guy at TAP was talking us through various options for how to make a custom cat door for our boat, and then it struck him ‘Why don’t you just go buy a pet door from Petco and we can use that as a template. No need to reinvent the wheel here.’
‘You can do that?’
‘Sure, yeah.’
‘Sweet.’
We put our other more important errands on hold and headed to Petco where in addition to purchasing a $20 cat door we also talked ourselves into buying a live catnip plant (which lasted all of a week on the boat) and a custom inscribed pet tag. We stood at that inscription machine for nearly 30 minutes trying to fit as much information as possible onto an impossibly tiny tag. We even registered a new gmail address for Tack in case someone prefers to contact us via email (please don’t hate us teenagers of the future for using up all of the gmail addresses for our pets!) We also used our google voice number since we plan to part with our cell phones (eventually). So technologically advanced.
The tag reads:
Tack
SV Serenity
Ph541414XXXX
TackB8@gmail
Feel free to send Tack an email. He’s pretty good about replying.
That was a tangent. The important thing is that we got a cat door and brought it back to TAP where they cut a custom piece of polycarbonate. When I went in to pick it up they asked me what I had ordered, to which I responded, ‘The most expensive cat door in the world.’
‘Ah,’ he said with a laugh, ‘I was wondering about that.’ All told the cat door cost us a whopping $70 and I wish I could say it was worth it…but Tack only uses it when we hold the door open for him. Spoiled. The poor guy was used to us just leaving the lowest drop-board out, so he could come and go as he pleased. Now when he gets spooked, he’s been known to ram his face into the plastic (thinking that the path is free and clear). If nothing else, at least it’s a source of occasional entertainment for me and Jeff.
Not sure what to think of this new contraption. 
False success…I had to hold the door open before he would even attempt it. Look how tentative he is about walking through it.
Update: Over one month later neither Jeff nor I have actually seen Tack use that damn pet door.
Update to the update: Tack loves his pet door now, though he’s getting a bit chunky and therefore he has to more or less squeeze through it.
– H