Sailing Saoirse - Our hearts are BROKEN 💔

With only 6 weeks left before our planned departure date - leaving South Africa for our trans Atlantic crossing - we still have so much to do. We are really getting down to mostly aesthetic projects now but as we tick jobs off of our "to-do" list, we seem to add so many more. We've also had an unexpected huge adjustment to make regarding Cleo, our much loved boat cat, and our hearts are broken 💔 Cleo joined our crew 2 years ago and has become an integral part of the family. It was during the pandemic's first hard lockdown period that Cleo adopted us. She lived at the Club Mykonos Resort along with a few other feral cats. Cleo, was clearly not a true feral. She is tame and loving (always on her terms😉) and enjoys company when it suits her. When the hard lockdown was announced, we were the only people living on a boat in the Marina. As a result of the lockdown, the restaurants, shops and offices were all closed. These were the primary source of food for the ferals and whilst Club Mykonos carried on with a basic feeding scheme, we would supplement their daily food with fresh fish that we caught in the marina. It was during this time that Cleo came down and moved onto the boat. When the restrictions had been relaxed enough for us to leave the resort, Cleo had become a part of the family and clearly wasn't going anywhere of her own accord. She had warm, dry place to live, food on demand and a group of human servants. We didn't have the heart to put her back out in the marina to fend for herself again so asked if she could stay with us and become a traveling cat? They agreed, saying that it was fine and said that if it didn't work out - she would be welcomed back. She seemed to settle in well when we moved from a dock mooring at the resort to a mooring ball at Saldanha Bay Yacht Club across the bay. Moving to a place where we were now surrounded by water and not on a dock where she could jump on and off of the boat whenever she wanted to, was bound to be a huge adjustment for her. We were real 'helicopter parents' - always aware of her every move, her eating and ablution habits and even her moods. More recently we noticed that she had started eating less, was hibernating down in the cabins more and had really aged quite significantly. We obviously don't know her true aged but the vet says she is definitely a teenager. She also developed what we thought could be a bladder infection so we took her to the vet and after some testing, were told that she is in early stage kidney failure. She would need to go onto specialised renal food but more importantly she needed to be removed from what the vet saw as a stressful environment. We hadn't seen that this life was 'stressful' to her, she seemed happy enough and had put everything down to age. He also said that if we didn't make these changes he felt she should be put to sleep as her condition would continue to deteriorate. This was obviously NOT even a consideration!! Anyone that has ever worked in animal rescue will know that homing an ageing animals, especially with fancy dietary requirements is a near impossibility, and even more so in the middle of a pandemic when people are struggling already. This news threw us into a real panic, wondering what we could do that would be best for Cleo. I decided to call Liezl, a lady from Mykonos Resort, who had always loved Cleo and see if there was any way in the world that they would take her back. We were really panicked about our situation and thought it was a long shot now, given the situation, that they would take her back and be able to fulfil her dietary and veterinary requirements. Liezl said to give her 24hours and she jumped into action. By the next day we got word that the Mykonos management had agreed to take her back, committed to seeing to her every need and she would become Liezl's office kitty. Whilst it broke our hearts to have to give her up, we knew that the alternative was not an option, she still has too much life in her for that. We will be forever grateful to Liezl and Club Mykonos for taking Cleo back with the commitment to seeing to her needs whilst she see's out the rest of her life. In a way, its been a small relief because doing research regarding veterinary care and dietary requirements in the areas we will be visiting. The islands generally have very little choice in pet food and in some places veterinary care is none existent. We had been worried about having a rapidly aging cat on board, that we would not be able to get the correct care for if required. Cleo moved over to Club Mykonos about 2 weeks ago after finishing up her antibiotics. When we took her back, it was like she had never been away, she knew exactly where she was and seemed settled immediately. We have visited a few times already, when we pick her up for cuddles she always smells like perfume so we know she is getting plenty of love and cuddles. Cleo will always be a much loved and cherished part of our boat-life story 💜