He Gives “Poop Deck” New Meaning

PopAye has a leg up (or more) on his human shipmates aboard their floating home, the One Aye. Rough seas aren’t quite so rough when you’re a surefooted Yorkshire Terrier. The year-old Yorkie lives on a 42-foot boat in Washington Harbor with Bill and Kathy, and treats the ship’s interior as his own personal playground. He scales the boat’s narrow stairs and benches with confident, athletic bounds, leaving no doubt that this novel living arrangement is completely comfortable for him.

“He took over command of the boat quickly,” Bill says wryly, the humor of being second in command to a five-pound dog not lost on him.

PopAye is Bill and Kathy's second boat Yorkie (their first lived to be twenty years old, and spent his dotage on the boat), so the logistics of a live-aboard canine were nothing new to them. His youthful agility required that they raise the screens on the doors to prevent an accidental “dog overboard” disaster, but aside from the watery backyard, their lifestyle isn’t that much different than high-rise apartment living. PopAye is trained to use a potty pad inside for those occasions when the One Aye is in transit and unable to stop, but he’s equally comfortable taking leash walks on the seawall near the docks.

His cute fluffy look belies a pirate’s spirit. From his refusal to wear a personal flotation device to his fearlessness on the bow of the dinghy, it’s clear that though you’d never read it in a breed description, this Yorkie is a dog that was born to boat.