Happy October, fellow Boots-lovers,

Angela here, pinch-hitting for Boots’ buddy Rosanna. It is with great joy that I report that our favorite sharp-dressed man has had a very quiet, healthy, uneventful month.

Well…I was okay until that last adjective. Honestly, life is anything but uneventful on Planet Boots. And the events of which I speak tend to be…um…violent.

Now, in all fairness to the sweetest tuxedo on earth, Planet Boots has gotten a good bit less eventful/violent recently. Once inclined to beat on everything with a tail, Boots has now learned to live peaceably with nearly all of his fellow lobby cats. In fact, it’s not unusual to find him curled up with his best girl, Bellis. This is major progress.

But one cat still provokes…events.

Halie, Jonathan‘s office mate, is one of the few lobby cats who isn’t technically a Special Needs baby. Jonathan has a long tradition of choosing, for his office mate, the cat most in need of love and understanding, and Halie certainly fits the bill. Not to put too fine a point on it, Halie doesn’t like cats. Or people. Or molecules. We’re working on proving worthy of her trust, but in the meantime she keeps a wary eye on everything that moves (or doesn’t).

And Boots is doing his best to make sure Halie never likes cats.

It used to be a daily thing, and now it’s down to about weekly. But, before too long, from my desk in the Community Room, I will regularly hear Jonathan bellow, “BOOOOOOOOOTS!!!!” By the time I get out to the lobby, the scene is always the same: Halie standing frozen and horrified, her calico fur sticking out in all the wrong places, and Boots in his “time-out” crate, looking a bit confused.

I honestly don’t know quite what comes over Boots in these moments, and I have my doubts as to whether he’s in control of it. He becomes so fixed on beating – actually, more like annihilating – Halie that nothing can break his focus. But he shows no threat to the humans who break up the fracas; he won’t so much as flick a claw in the direction of Halie’s rescuer. By the time he’s in his crate, he looks a bit unsure as to what just happened.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how does a totally-toothless cat bite another cat? Your guess is as good as mine, but the truth is that ruthless, toothless Boots is the terror of the lobby, with or without choppers.

No matter. Nothing could make me love this boy any less, and I know that’s equally true for you. Happily, our love-bug (around humankind and Bellis-kind, anyway) is having an excellent month medically. Other than a very brief cold, which was easily defeated by antibiotics, Boots has been flying below the vet’s radar – just the way he, and we, like it.

Here’s to a blissfully uneventful October and beyond. Thank you, wonderful and loving sponsors, for your generosity to our handsome cuddler. Boots and I send you our affection!