Anyone looking out across the water near Tacoma’s Owen Beach might have seen nothing more than an abandoned boat drifting quietly offshore, but inside was a heartbreaking situation that no one expected to find. More than 30 cats and kittens had been living aboard the vessel in unsafe conditions, with many frightened, hungry, and in desperate need of care. When officers with the Tacoma Police Department’s Marine Services Unit approached the boat, an ordinary call about an abandoned vessel quickly became an urgent rescue mission focused on bringing every vulnerable animal safely back to shore.
Tacoma police officers with the Marine Services Unit responded to reports of the boat on Thursday, August 6. Once they realized how many animals were aboard, they began coordinating with Animal Control and forensic personnel to figure out how to safely bring every cat back to shore. The sight inside the vessel was so unusual that Tacoma police Public Information Officer John Correa compared it to something from a Studio Ghibli movie.
“It was their boat, and they were all out and about roaming around on it,” Correa told The News Tribune.
For the cats, however, their floating home was far from a whimsical setting. Police described many of the animals as frightened and malnourished, and rescuers needed patience as they worked around the unfamiliar environment.
A Delicate Rescue Begins on the Water
Getting the cats off the boat was not as simple as immediately climbing aboard and gathering them up. Because the vessel was still privately owned, Tacoma Animal Control first needed to obtain a search warrant before authorities could enter and begin removing the animals. Once the warrant was granted, Marine Services officers returned Friday morning, and the rescue operation moved forward.
With more than 30 cats and kittens scattered throughout the vessel, crews had to work carefully. Frightened animals can hide or become difficult to approach, particularly when they are already stressed, hungry, and surrounded by unfamiliar people.
Marine Services officers, Animal Control workers, and forensic technicians joined forces during the operation. The rescue stretched into the following day as crews focused on safely removing each animal rather than rushing the process.
“Through a tremendous team effort, every cat and kitten is being safely removed from the boat,” Tacoma police said in an update.
Residents around Owen Beach had noticed the unusual police activity unfolding on the water. Authorities said they shared an update partly because so many people in the community had seen crews working around the vessel and wondered what was happening. For rescuers, the priority remained the animals aboard.
Each cat brought off the vessel represented another frightened animal finally leaving an unsafe environment behind. After enduring uncertain conditions aboard the abandoned boat, they were headed somewhere they could receive food, shelter, and proper attention.
The rescued cats were transported to the Tacoma-Pierce County Humane Society, where their immediate needs could be addressed following the ordeal. Police were able to find information about the boat’s owner, but Correa said authorities had been unable to reach him. No arrests had been made, and investigators were still working to determine how so many cats and kittens ended up living aboard the vessel. For now, that unanswered question remains part of an ongoing investigation.
What is clear is how dramatically the cats’ circumstances changed once officers found them. A boat that had become an unsafe refuge was no longer their only shelter, and animals that had been frightened and malnourished were finally being brought into the care of people determined to help them.
The unusual discovery could easily be remembered simply as the story of a “cat boat.” For the more than 30 animals rescued from it, however, the operation meant something far more important: the chance to leave a difficult chapter behind and begin recovering somewhere safe.