Proof that cats can swim 10/27/07

Beamer (the black cat in the picture above; next to him is his sister Lexus) went for a swim in the bay last night and climbed out to tell the tale. We think he got out the front door and went over the side after a pigeon (he's extraodinarily cuckoo about birds!) and ended up in the drink. Mark found him on the lot next door; he must have climbed up the bulkhead piling out of the water.When I got home from work last night he was still wet from his bath and a little shaken, but some time in front of the fire helped dry off both his fur and his feathers, so to speak. Mark said that when Lexus first saw her brother all wet, she hissed at him-I guess the salty bay odor brought back bad memories of her time in the bay; although the water was a whole lot colder last winter when she went in.
I hope both of them have now learned about the water all around us; they must be able to see it through the railing on the porch and out the windows, but now they understand what it's all about!.

From an email I wrote after Mark called me in DC to say that Lexus got wet:

"Did you ever wonder if cats can swim? Well Mark found out last night that there is at least one who can-that would be Lexus! Somehow she got over the railing-she has this trick of doing a running jump to get up there and Mark thinks maybe she overshot and went over. Luckily she must have gone over the end of the house because there's all that steel on the side and she seems unhurt. Poor Beamer came in and squeaked at Mark and when he went out on the deck Lexus was nowhere to be found. When he called her he heard her meowing, and after looking around on next door deck etc, he realized that she was underneath the house next door!

It seems that she had swum/the tide took her next door, and she climbed up one of the pilings at the water end of the house. Mark had to crawl around on the shaky catwalk that Gabe has under there to get to his plumbing and coax her off of the piling. She was soaking wet with salty bay water so he gave her a bath. He called me last night at midnight to tell me about it, and I called in this morning to check on her; he said she seems ok, although she hasn't bugged to play yet. I guess she's beat after all the swimming and holding on for dear life!

Needless to say they won't be on the deck unsupervised anymore.

What a night!"

So it seems that both our cats have now been in the intercoastal-chasing after birds or just plain recklessness.
They are quite a pair!