Whether It’s a Paddleboard, Pontoon Boat or Kayak, Max the Cat will Ride it
You hear of stories where a unique animal loves a sport that you wouldn’t even imagine he’d love, for instance, the one-eyed cat named Nankuli in Hawaii who loves to surf, and then there’s Jesper, a skijoring cat in Norway. But Minnesota thinks they have something even better – a cat that loves to paddleboard.
Max is owned by Craig Reed of Forest Lake, and he loves to ride his paddleboard with his owner whenever he takes it out on the lake. Of course it sounds ridiculous because cats don’t usually care for water. Actually, many panic at just the thought of it. But that’s why this is such a unique story.
Reed says that Max, who is ten years old, has been paddleboarding more than 20 times ever since Reed and his wife took him in, in January 2010. Max was a stray cat that had been taken to the Animal Humane Society in Woodbury and it’s where they adopted him from.
Reed and Max love to paddleboard on Forest Lake, and more than that, the feline has really proven to ne a real Minnesotan at heart because he loves the lake so much, that he does more than paddleboard; he loves riding on pontoon boats, and even kayaks.
Reed says that he and Max take a dock walk just about every night. Max loves to be on the dock; he loves to see what’s happening on the dock and it has helped him to really get accustomed to being around water and once he was, he would just sit on the paddleboard on the beach waiting to get his ride. And he’s gotten so agile with going back and forth that he can simply step from the dock to the board without ever falling off the dock.
Max is a good-sized cat. He weighs 16.5 pounds and is definitely not what you’d call a “scaredy-cat.” He has proven himself to be quite brave, and according to Reed, he’s even scared eagles out of their yard. Reed says he seems more dog-like than cat. Or at the very least, an adventure cat.
There is an Instagram account called “Adventure Cats” and now a book that was written by author, Laura Moss, and it documents the adventures of cats who love the outdoors and being part of their owners’ activities. They bike, ski, surf, camp, hike, boat and more. The Norway kitty Jesper, takes ski trips with his owners.
On the website, you’ll find the story about a cat who sailed around the world and a story about a cat who is busy traveling the U.S. national parks, traveling all over the country with its owner.
In the book, you’ll find advice on how to train your cat to walk in a harness, how to keep cats safe around campfires, all kinds of information about toxic plants for cats out in the wild, and how to put together a first-aid kit for felines, and what about sunscreen? Do cats need it? You’ll find out in the book,
Moss wanted to squash the idea that cats aren’t and can’t be adventurous, that all they are is lazy. She also wanted to end the stereotype that men can’t be cat people and have fun with a cat like you can with a dog. Her goal was to help encourage others to go out and adopt a cat that needs a home and give them a chance. She wants the term “cat person” to have a different meaning and break the old stereotype of what that really means.
