Today we put our 15-year-old cat Boots to sleep.
If you ever spent time at our house, you’d be surprised to
know that we had Boots. Because Boots was not a mingler. She didn’t like
strangers. In fact, she didn’t even like us.
But she loved our son Graham. We got Boots when Graham was
in grade school. She was slotted to be a farm cat, but Graham saw her, picked
her up, and carried her into the house. And that was that.
Our other cats Carter and Millie didn’t give her a sniff. And
because we have a large house, Boots took a floor (the basement) and lived
there in her own company.
That’s where she and Graham bonded. The TV and video games
were in the basement. And Graham spent long hours playing war and world-domination
games with this little tortoise-shell kitten in his lap. We used to call him
Dr. Evil.
Boots loved Graham. He could call her name and she’d come
running like a dog and jump up onto his knee. If we called Boots she never
came. Graham could hold Boots cradled like a baby. No one else could even pick
her up.
Boots slept on Graham’s bed sitting on a pillow next to his
head, staring at him all night. It was creepy.
After Graham left for college, Boots moved into our room,
slept on our bed, but she never let us pick her up. She was a one-man cat and
her man was gone. We were just pale placeholders until Graham came home. And
when he did, he’d call her name and she’d come bounding out from under some
bed, joyously meowing.
Boots was like a ghost. Sometimes guests would see her
scuttle by. It’s weird sharing a house with an animal that is wholly
uninterested in you. She just wandered where she wanted, away from public or
private view, for 15 years. And now she’s gone. And it’s hard to say how she’ll
be missed. But she will.
Posts
