R.I.P. “Boots”

Rest in Peace and Know You Were Loved.

Boots was the first feral cat to show up on our back deck looking for scraps leftover from dinner, many months before my neighbor, Dershowitz, (not his real name), died in July 2019.

I later learned Dershowitz had been using his front porch and front steps as his toilet.

After a couple of months of enjoying the occasional fine dining, his best friend, Duke, also started showing up on the back deck.

Boots was a southpaw. Duke was bigger and healthier, but when Boots swung a left at Duke’s face, Duke always backed off. Otherwise, they got along great and always ate off the same plate. Even when their scraps were tasty fish, neither of them ever drove the other away from a plate of food. Duke and Boots often gave each other affectionate head rubs, but if Boots wasn’t in the mood for a head rub, he’d give Duke a swipe of his left paw, and would occasionally hiss when he was in an especially bad mood.

Duke and Boots… Best Buddies.

Boots was never friendly to people. Duke is a little better but still backs off quickly. I could bring some scraps of deli meat to them and get them to come close enough to grab a scrap but then back away to eat it.

Boots always had an angry look on his face, but that was all part of his endearing charm and personality. We loved him just the same.

For as long as I remember, he looked like he had something wrong with his mouth. I didn’t notice it at first. Boots rarely got close enough for us to check him out. One day, when Dershowitz was still alive, Boots’ mouth started looking worse. I thought he must have got into a fight with a larger black cat from somewhere down the street, when one of the girls was in heat. He was looking a bit roughed up. I spoke with Dershowitz, the “owner” of the cats. He had stopped caring about any of the cats ten years ago, and didn’t even know how many ferals there were. He said he had stopped keeping cats indoors many years before, had no names for any of them, and none of them were spayed or neutered. Dershowitz estimated there were more than 20. The cats were living under his two abandoned vehicles and his rotted back deck. To his credit, Dershowitz continued to put food out for the feral cat colony every day.

When I found out Dershowitz had completely lost track of any of his cats, and none were spayed or neutered, I started learning about feral cats to gather some information about local resources. At first, I was not encouraged, thinking the county might have all the cats and kittens euthanized.

On July 17, 2019, I got a call from Dershowitz’s friend who had not heard from him and was concerned. I walked over to his overgrown yard, knocked on his front door and got no response, so I called the Wake County Sheriffs Dept. A short while later, the street was filled with emergency vehicles including a fire truck with a huge spotlight. Dershowitz was found dead. I don’t know how many days he had been dead. It was probably a few days. R.I.P.

On July 19th, ten feral cats and kittens invaded my back yard. Eight of them were cats and kittens I had never seen before except for when they were occasionally seen crossing the street. They were starved, unhealthy, skinny with ribs showing, sad looking, and scared to death. When I opened the door, they scattered.

I have no idea how many days it had been since they last ate, and it was probably years since they had clean, fresh water. The kittens were small but no longer fed by suckling a mother cat. It might have been many days without food or fresh water. The house lost it’s water supply from a lightning strike about 7 years earlier. The pipe has still not been replaced! I later learned Dershowitz had been using his front porch and front steps as his toilet. For all those years, the only source of water for the colony of feral cats had been from containers trashed throughout the yard which collected rain water and was a breeding place for lots of mosquitoes.

It is little wonder that the adult male cats, Boots and Duke had adopted our yard months before the invasion by the rest of the feral cats and kittens in July.

As time went on, we started to get closer looks at Boots. It was obvious that his hair was always a scruffy mess, and his legs were skinny, but the biggest health concern appeared to be his mouth. It looked like either he had a cut lip with part of it hanging down below his chin, or it was his tongue.

In August of 2019 I bought a 2-door Havahart trap. Between August and November, I managed to trap an adult momma cat, 1 older kitten, and 8 young kittens. I was not so lucky with Boots and Duke. Boots went in through one door and Duke went in the other. When the trap was sprung and the doors began to shut, both of them were lightning-fast, turned around and ran out with the doors spanking their fannies.

Between November and February, I rigged up the trap so the doors were kept open, and put food in the traps. All the kitties went into the trap to get food; all except Boots and Duke. Boots would go in just a little ways if I put the food close enough to the open door, but would never venture in further. Duke stared at the food and the trap but it never got out of his mind that he could get a spanking, so both avoided the trap.

In early February, we saw Boots mouth problems were getting severe. He was drooling, and he looked skinny despite eating (slowly) and still had a scruffy mane compared to all the other cats who were perfectly healthy. I had to trap Boots and get him to the vets as soon as possible.

Since trying to get Boots more accustomed to the trap wasn’t working quickly enough, and all the other cats who didn’t need to be trapped were using it, I found out drop traps are good for trapping a specific cat, because the person trapping has control of the timing for when to drop the trap.

I contacted Gina from Safe Haven for Cats. Gina had a drop trap, so we made arrangements for her to come to the house, and were setting up an appointment with Safe Haven.

Finally, on February 17, 2020, after months of trying to trap Boots, I was feeding all the kitties one morning and noticed Boots was very comfy lying on a blanket in a cardboard box and stayed in there instead of joining the others to eat on the patio. I went in the house, grabbed another blanket, put it around the box, tipped it up and brought him, in the box, into the bathroom, and called Wake County Animal Control.

Two hours later, Animal Control transported Boots to the Wake County Animal Center for evaluation and TNVR. I typed up a letter with info about Boots to be shared with the surgeon, and visited WCAC. Three days later, on February 20th, the surgeon evaluated Boots and found his mouth problems were too severe. Even if they extracted all his teeth (not good for a feral outdoors cat), he would still have other mouth problems and health issues. Sadly, they had to put him down.

I tell this long story about Boots because people who decide to take on a feral project like this need to know that life is not easy for feral cats, and there is always a chance of every story not having a happy ending.

What a good cat Boots was. He was quite the character. We are happy to have known him. We miss him a lot, as does his best buddy Duke who has been looking for him.

Rest in peace, Professor “Boots” McSqueamish.