Rest in Peace dear Boots

1994? to 9/11/2009

Boots, black cat with white boots. Female, mother of Tim, Al, Heidi and Jill (named after the Home Improvement TV show). Boots came into our lives one day in 1998. My young 4 year old daughter and Boots hit it off immediately. We thought that Boots was a neighbors cat but it was soon apparent that she wasn’t. She disappeared after a few weeks and we thought she had gone back to where she came from. Four weeks later she shows up again and led me to behind our hay shed where she had a litter of 4 kittens hidden.

After the kittens were weaned, Boots made a trip to the vet for the little snip, snip operation. That was when we learned her age. She was about 4 years old. The four kittens grew and stayed with us until one by one they either died or went to live with a neighbor. Tim is the only one still alive and lives with a good friend.

Boots lived with us in California until 2004 when she then made the long trip with us to Oregon. She loved being an outdoor cat and got along well with the dogs. She was my daughter’s first real cat of her own. In the last few years of her life she became blind and hard of hearing. She relished her daily can of cat food that I served her each day for the last six months of her life, because she was losing weight. The past week her health deteriorated rapidly and she had to be monitored every few hours. She finally passed away earlier today. She lived a full long life and was about 15 or 16 years old.

Rest in peace, Boots. Where you are now you are no longer blind and you can hear again.