Boots became a part of our family on February 13, 2015, when he was around nine years old. We had lost our 19 ½ year old grey tabby, Elmo, on September 2, 2014, and wanted to take in a cat who needed a home. At the time, we also had Miss Kitty, a gray tabby, and Zeus, a Doberman/German Sheppard/Chow mix rescue (but despite the potential scary breeds, Zeus was a lovebug who enjoyed laying around with “his” cats). We were not sure how Miss Kitty would react because when we previously tried to bring another cat into our home, she was none too pleased and let us know it by using the bathroom in inappropriate places.

I “found” Boots on MAFIA’s website. I read his backstory, and it touched my heart. He only had three legs, and my first dog only had three legs. Boots just seemed special. We had not met Boots before Terri and her mother brought him to our house. I was in love as soon as I saw him. My husband was a little skeptical because of our experience with Miss Kitty and our prior rescue, but he set out to win Boots’ trust and affection.

We set up a room just for him -- “Boots’ Room” -- and allowed him space to adjust. He stayed in his room for a few weeks. We thought at the time that we may have made a mistake because him living in a room without interaction with us was not fair to him. Slowly, we noticed that he would venture out of his room, coming closer and closer to our living room where we spent most of our time. Then, he and Miss Kitty met face to face. Although Miss Kitty was not happy that he was in the house at the time (some hissing and running away), once she realized she had her own space (my son’s room on the second floor), she started warming up to Boots and by the time Miss Kitty’s health started failing in February of 2021, they were actually friends. Zeus would curl up on the couch or on his bed with whichever cat wanted to snooze at the time.

Boots’ personality started coming out. Although he initially stayed in his room, once he started venturing out, getting pets, getting treats, and finding comfortable places to nap, he rarely went to his room. One night, about three months after we got Boots, my husband cooked some crab legs. Boots immediately perked up because of the smell. Of course, my husband had to give Boots some of the crab meat and I thought Boots was going to lick a hole in the plate. They shared many crab legs over the years and Boots became a “Daddy’s boy.” I thought when we got him, he would be “my” lap cat, but he was not the lap cat type. He was more of a sit beside you on the couch type, which he did very well. My husband and Boots had a bond that I have never seen between a man and a cat, especially a man who had never had cats before we met. They literally had “conversations” with each other, back and forth.

One day, I walked into the living room and Boots was sitting on the couch like a person. He showed his ultimate trust in us when he would lay on his back exposing his belly. Laying on his back caused is one back paw to go up into the air and curl which looked like the Loch Ness Monster to us so we affectionally named it “Nessie.” Boots was not fond of the cold, and being an orange tabby and in Garfield fashion, when the weather started cooling, he would nuzzle his was up underneath whatever blanket was on the couch and “lump” as we called it. Sometimes, he would not get his whole body under the blanket, and you could see the tip of his tail so slightly sticking out from underneath his blankets. He loved blankets. We always had one blanket on the couch for him to lay on and one bunched up as his “kneading material” because he enjoyed kneading from time to time.

Boots had really bad teeth and had to get many removed resulting in his tongue hanging out of his mouth every now and then, which was adorable but subjected us to his bad breath. I would always tell him, “I love you, but you stink.” He did not seem to mind or get offended. Because of his bad teeth, hard food was not an option and, as he got older, even wet food became difficult for him to eat, so my husband would put Boots’ food in a hand pulled chopper to ensure that the food was ground up enough for him (and he had a particular food that he would eat – Friskies Shred Ocean Whitefish with Sardines – nothing else would do) and would mix in some Friskies Lil Gravies chicken flavor (which all sounds unappealing but Boots ate it with gusto) to entice Boots to eat.

In 2020, my husband started permanently working from home which made them grow closer. They had a routine. Boots had an internal clock and woke my husband up between 5:45 – 6:00 in the morning, every morning, regardless of whether it was the weekend or not. He knew my husband took a lunch break at 12:00 p.m., and if my husband was not up from his desk by that time, Boots would “use his words” by meowing in a way that literally sounded like a person saying “hello.” One of his nicknames, and he had many (Pookie, Pookiness, Baby-ness, Pookster, Poot, Toot, Muppet, to name a few), was Uncle Leo after the character Jerry Seinfeld’s Uncle Leo. Boots knew he got treats at 6:00 p.m. and, again, if my husband was not done with work, Boots would yell out “hello!” We had a routine where we would go to bed around 10:00 p.m., but Boots liked to be “tucked in,” so we would hear his “Hello!” and my husband would go to the couch, where Boots spent the majority of his time, and pet him until he fell asleep. As time went by and it because harder and harder for Boots to jump upon the couch unassisted, we placed a small box at the foot of the couch like a stair which helped Boots to continue to get up and down from the couch as he wanted without assistance and without fear he would injure himself.

One of the things Boots liked, as many cats do, are boxes. Anytime we had a box, regardless of the size, he wanted to get in it (despite only having three legs and some of the boxes being big). We would cut a square out of the front of the box and put a soft blanket in so he could easily get in/out of the box. One of his favorite boxes was a box that individually wrapped kettle corn bags came in. He actually had two, one inside and one on the screened in porch. Boots loved the screened in porch. When the weather was nice and not too humid, my husband and I would watch television on the porch while lounging on our chaise loungers. Boots would not only come out on the porch but would jump up on the lounger my husband was on (he never jumped up with me) and curl up between my husband’s legs. Our very last weekend with Boots was a beautiful weather weekend. Boots spent his entire last weekend on the screened in porch, even sleeping out there at night. We are grateful that we had Boots in our lives for the time that we did and know that he loved us as much as we loved him.

​

The Bunge Family