Police complete 6-day rescue of 60 cats from abandoned Washington sailboat

On August 6th, Tacoma police received a call about an abandoned sailboat sitting in the waters off Owens Beach. What they found when they arrived would keep them working for the next six days: more than thirty cats and kittens living in the hull, many of them thin and visibly frightened. The vessel, a 40-foot sailboat, had become an accidental shelter for animals in distress.

The initial count seemed manageable enough. Officers from the Marine Services Unit coordinated with Animal Control and the department's Forensics Unit to begin extracting the animals safely from the confined space. But as the days wore on, the number kept climbing. Hidden in corners, tucked into cabins, wedged behind equipment—more cats emerged. By the time the operation concluded six days later, the final tally had doubled: 60 cats and kittens in total.

The rescue was methodical and cautious. Cats are masters of concealment, and a frightened animal in an unfamiliar space can vanish into spaces humans can barely reach. Police knew that even after they believed they had found them all, more might still be aboard. So they announced they would continue making trips to the boat throughout the week, operating under the authority of a search warrant, just in case another animal was hiding somewhere they had missed.

Once off the boat, the cats were distributed to safety. More than forty went to the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County. The rest were placed in foster homes throughout the area, where they could begin recovering from their time in the abandoned vessel. Many were malnourished and would need time to regain their health.

But the rescue operation became complicated by an outside intervention. A private cat rescue trapper named Camille Sutherland, believing the authorities were moving too slowly, boarded the vessel overnight without permission and captured two cats, which she then took to the Humane Society. Her intentions were good—she wanted to help—but her actions created a problem. The unauthorized boarding interfered with the police investigation into who owned the boat and how the cats came to be there in the first place. Police told local media that this intrusion had complicated their ability to understand the full scope of what happened.

The investigation remains active, though no arrests or charges have been announced. Police have asked the public to report any sightings of additional cats aboard the vessel, but they have been explicit about one thing: do not board the boat yourself. "This remains an active criminal case," the department stated. "Our teams are working hard to protect the animals while also protecting the integrity of the investigation." The vessel itself is now in the process of being moved, its legal owner identified but the circumstances of the abandonment still under scrutiny.