The Mouser set sail this morning for the high seas and Burope where we will
pick up more of the human crew members.  The usual suspects are in charge,
though I now have a new cabin kit named Errol.  Qui Gun Kit was getting a
little old for the job and has joined his beloved Miss LilyWhiskers as part
of the ships' marine contingent.  Gunnery Sergeant Huey is in charge of
training them and tactics.  However, I'm told that the real tactician is too
secretive to let his/her name be known.

The bait bucket has already been tipped over once, though the culprit claims
it was an accident.  Right.  The humans have set the sails and have got the
rods and reels out for fishing purposes.  I suggested a net, but I'm told
that is illegal unless you are a commercial fishercat.  Humm.  How do we get
a license for that?

The supplies for a venture this large are amazing.  The cargo holds are full
of human and feline food, towels, blankets, hammocks, toys, books, drinks,
special medications for both human and cat, cat litter, a couple of TVs and
DVDs so that we can watch our shows instead of what the humans watch, CD
players and CDs, Cat nip in small kegs, water, desalination plant, and all
sorts of sundry items.

For those who've never seen The Mouser, let me describe her to you.  She is
a three masted schooner with a diesel motor as a back up.  She looks like
something from the last century, but we've managed to sneak in as many
modern conveniences as possible, even some that the humans don't know about.
She has four decks and a bilge.  Solar panels are discretely placed to get
power for her generators to run whatever we need.  We have innovational
composting litter boxes and such to help with the waste below decks and the
humans are blessed with recyclable water for showers and personal use.

The cabin on the main deck is the pilot house rather than the captain's
cabin.  Here is where the control center of the ship is.  There is a
computer hooked up to a satellite system, GPS, radio and phone systems,
radar, sonar, ward room, deep sea charts and graphs, and everything we can
think of to make our voyage comfortable and safe.  Cinders and Rosie who
used to own "The Genesis" helped us extensively in our quest to get it
right.  We monitor weather reports diligently so that we can warn our fellow
cats to get out of the out and let the humans take care of the ship when it
rains.  There is also the sail locker and anchor controls.  We do everything
we can to keep our crewmembers safe, even if they are humans.

The main deck is where most of the action takes place during sunny weather.
As I wrote earlier, The Mouser has three masts and all of them have perches
added for feline comfort.  The fat wench says that when the weather is good,
The Mouser looks like it had a tribble infestation.  She laughed maniacally
when I asked her what tribbles are, so I suspect that it is just something
that she made up to drive me up a wall.  I don't want our ship to be
infested by anything except mice and other treats.  Anyway there are perches
nests and other comfy places for us owners all over the main deck.  There
are fishing stations to be manned and bait buckets to protect from wayward
kits.  The hoolikitten class of 2005 still acts like, well kittens, and
causes a lot of damage in their activities.  I've made them swab the deck a
few times, but that only keeps them busy for an hour or two and they only
sleep for 18 hours a day.

The first deck below is where the humans and cat officer's cabins,
infirmary, laundry, galley, another computer room, library, and lounge are.
The humans sleep with two in a cabin and have eight pretty spacious cabins,
though we only need twelve humans to run the ship.  Each human's cabin
includes beds (the fat wench and PawRob, and the blonde wench and gem have
big beds in their cabins with plenty of space to share with those cats who
want to join them) built-in cabinets and desk, TVs and CD players, writing
materials and two laptops per cabin.  The cat officers' cabins aren't as
large as the human cabins, but we have our own hammocks, beds, litter
systems, food and water dishes, toy boxes, computers and whatever else we
can think of needing.  Again we sleep with two cats per cabin, though Miss
Chloe hasn't told me if she'll marry me at FranknNikki's Island on June 21,
which is summer solstice and remembering day for us all.

The first set of cargo holds with food, medicine, and non durable goods are
on the second below deck, as is the Ship's store.  There a human or cat can
purchase or rent books, DVDs, CDs, and toys.  Drinks and snacks are also
available for purchase, as are other luxuries for the discerning lady or
gentlecat.  The quartermaster and master at arms quarters are  here as well.
Four cats share cabins here and have access to all the comforts they need
either in their cabins or in the public rooms in the upper deck.

The third below deck contains cargo holds of "durable goods" such as
blankets, litter and litter pans, equipment, and whatever items we won't
need in a hurry.  It is also the main cat crew quarters.  There are several
"rooms" for the crew.  The 2005 cats have claimed one room, as have the kits
who are old enough to be on their maiden voyage.  The oldest cats chose a
room as far from the main bustle as possible, with their own ramp to the
other decks so that they can easily get to where they want to be.  Each room
has hammocks and storage lockers for each cat so that they can keep their
property safe.  I know of one crew member who has a Tupperware tub of purple
fuzzy balls in his locker.  Others have a special blanket or mat, kitty
treats, pictures of their humans, and other treasures stored in their
lockers.  Each one is scent sealed, so that break-ins just won't happen.
Security is very important to us here.

The fourth deck is where the motors, generators, and powerhouse parts of The
Mouser are housed.  The head of the fourth deck is a feline mechanical and
electrical engineering wizard named (of course) Scotty.  He meows with this
strange accent and there are times when I have a hard time understanding
him, but he is incredible at keeping us moving on the water as well as the
refrigeration, cooking, desalination units, and our other mechanicals up and
running.  He has a worthy team of  human and felines working under him and
we are grateful to them all.

I'm sure that I've forgotten to mention a lot about The Mouser, but then I'm
a very busy cat.  As you probably know, the first week of a voyage is a
shake-down experience and we are busily testing all systems and working the
bugs out.  Already we  had to move the 2005 hoolikittens away from the
retired cat cabin as the hoolikittens were making too much noise.  We
swapped them with the cabin kits as they help take care of the retirees
anyway.  Our first port of call is Englan where we will gather another human
crew member, Helen Miles, and her owners as well as any other humans who are
interested in joining us and we have the space for.  Right now we are
running with a skeleton crew and need more members.  Any cats or humans
interested?

Cap'n Pine Cone esq.
Off the North Carolina coast.