With a broken heart, I must let you know that our darling kitty Boots has passed away. Just before Christmas he developed a kidney infection that shortened his amazing life. He was just 10 years old.

When we captured Boots he was a wild kitten born in the gray barn on the farm. When I handed the little gray/ginger/white fluff-ball to my son (soon after Bootsie bit me with his razor-sharp little teeth), my son exclaimed “This is the happiest day of my life!” You see, my son never had a stuffed bear that he cared about, but from the time he was teenie, tiny, he owned a white stuffed cat that he could not live without. He outgrew Kitty only after Boots came into our lives. (I know Wes’ YaYa is reading this — thank you my friend for buying that stuffed animal for him all those years ago! Kitty still lives in my son’s closet.)

Some pictures of the day Boots arrived in our lives:

From this wild beginning, Boots became a people cat almost instantly. We often talked about how unfulfilled his life would have been if he had stayed in the barn with no one to adore him and snuggle with him. Certainly our lives changed for the better the day he joined us.

These two best friends spent a lot of time together.

The Saga of Boots and his bathroom remodel adventure is one of the most read posts on our blog.

These two best friends grew up together. Now my little boy is 18-years-old and Bootsie is gone.

Boots was my sewing buddy. The corner chair by the window in my sewing room has the best afternoon light and it was his favorite place to sleep alone in the sunshine. He also liked to be wherever we were — purring and snuggling and bringing comfort and a occasional gift for the sorry folks he lived with who were too dull to hunt for themselves.

Whenever I moved a quilt and a book out to the lawn to enjoy a sunny afternoon, Boots could be counted on to show up and keep me company.

When we moved across the street to a new and bigger house, Boots, who was an indoor-outdoor kitty, gained new territory, but he always went back across the street in the morning to inspect his old stomping grounds and explore the cliff and the stream located there.

We placed him at rest above the cliff, wrapped in his/my favorite fluffy bathrobe. We are heartbroken.

The last month without him has been difficult. There are too many monumental changes happening in my life right now. I was not ready for Boots to be one of them.

My long arm quilter, the Fabulous Ms. G., gave me a mini paper-pieced heart pattern that I completed this summer when I was visiting Cindy in Ohio. Now we are approaching Valentine’s Day and it’s high time I completed the quilting. Look who is featured in the February block:

Boots was a tremendous once-in-a-lifetime friend and kitty. I’m glad he was in my life.