BOOTS AND TIPPY

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 I have always loved animals.  And I had the best of both worlds – we had cats in my house, and my Aunt Jessie and Granny had dogs.  Jessie and Granny lived only about 10 minutes away from our house, so we were over there often, and they were at our house often.  While we didn’t take our cats with us when we visited them, they usually brought the dog(s) with them when they came to visit us.  And the animals got along together surprisingly well.

 Daddy grew up on a farm, one of 13 children, and I suppose there were cats and dogs on that farm, but I’m sure they were “outside” animals.  Consequently, he was rather opposed to our having an inside animal.  But I was just so attached to any stray that I could find – I even remember taking a stray kitten I had found into a church meeting with me!  I think that’s what convinced Mother to convince Daddy to let me get a cat of my own.  Especially since I contracted ring worm from one of the strays I found!

And so, we found ourselves at the home of a church family whose cat had recently had a litter of kittens.  We finally picked one out that we thought would be a good fit for us.  When we got him home, we began the course of naming him.  He was mostly white, with large black spots on him.  But he had black “tips” on the tips of his ears, and so we named him Tippy.

He was a good little cat, and I no longer picked up the strays.  He was not necessarily a full-time indoor cat – he was outside quite a bit.  And so, one day he just didn’t come home.  We were all devastated!  After a few weeks, we went to another house where the cat had recently given birth to a litter, and I was allowed to pick out another kitten.  These kittens were long-haired, and really beautiful.  We picked out one that was part dark tabby on his back and hind quarters, with a large white area in shoulders, chest and paws.  His head and ears were mostly dark, with a white face.  And so, we named him Boots, aka Bootsie.

We really loved that cat.  And Daddy, who was opposed to the whole idea of an inside pet, found that cat in his lap more often than not, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!  At least, we found him petting Boots, quite absently.

I don’t remember exactly how long we had Boots when – much to our surprise – Tippy came home!  A bit worse for the wear, but he seemed to want to stay close to home now.  So we went from no cats – to TWO!!  They seemed to get along together quite well, and even romped and chased each other through the house.  As quiet as cats are, they sounded like a herd of elephants sometimes!

And then, one day, we came home to find that Tippy had been hit by a car and killed.  I don’t remember that Boots moped, but that he grew to be just our one and only cat.  He lived to a ripe old age of 13.

Mother said that she entered him in a cat show once, but would never do it again.  He won a pretty good prize, but she said that, as she approached his cage and spoke to him, he looked up at her and immediately walked over to his food and water and began eating.  The officials at the show said he had refused to eat or drink before that.  So Mother decided it was just too much to put him through again.

Occasionally, when he was outside, he would stalk birds in the trees in the back yard.  If he caught one, he would wound it, then bring it to the back door of the house and just yowl his head off until one of us came to the door and praise him for being such a good hunter.  Then he would kill and eat the bird.

He also caught the one and only mouse that got into our house.  We really enjoyed him.  We were blessed to have him as long as we did.

Tags: Animals, Cats, Christianity, Family Life, Kittens