Bootsie's Kittens Need Homes!
The kittens will be ready for adoption in early June.
Last Updated 05/10/2025
Seven-month-old Boots (AKA, Bootsie, Bootster, Sweetpea,
Munchkin, The Princess)
had four kittens on Sunday afternoon, March 7.
They will be available to good homes that meet certain qualifications. These
qualifications are:
If the above conditions, sound fair, you probably will want to learn more. Read on...
About the Kittens
On Sunday, March 7, Boots began contractions at about 1:45pm. She gave birth to her first kitten at 2:05pm. She had no difficulty delivering, and tended to her kittens well. The rest of the kittens were born at 2:25, 3:25, and 4:25. All appeared healthy at birth, and have been doing very well, as has their mother. They are isolated from the other cats in the house, and the beagle, but we will begin to socialize them when appropriate, so that the kittens will be well-adjusted adults.
Two of the kittens are a sort of orange sherbet color, with the other two having Boots' coloring. As I write this the kittens are only four days old, so I don't know if they will have short or long hair, or what sexes they are. We have been photographing them daily, and will try to make a family album available to the adoptive parents.
Update - March 14: the kittens are doing great (so is Mom), and must be twice the size they were when born. Here are the four kittens at one week old:
Wednesday, March 17 - The babies' eyes are starting to open, and they are trying to lift themselves up onto their legs. All are still exhibiting perfect health. We handle them a couple of times a day so that they get used to being handled by people.
Wednesday, March 24 - Eyes are wide open, and the shaky waddling has begun:
This little one has coloring closest to Boots. He/she is the most timid of the kittens, yet the only one to crawl out of the nest box yet...
Sunday, March 28 - The babies are three weeks old today. They have begun to do "big kitty" things like scratch, stretch, and play with each other. The tan kittens have one difference that we have noted so far: One has whiter feet than the other.
Monday, May 10 - We've been busy with "lighthouse stuff," including the release of my new book on Long Island's lighthouses, so we haven't been updating the photos as much as we'd like. The babies are at full speed, romping, eating solid food, and attacking our feet while we sleep at night. Here are some photos from today:
About Boots
Boots is a very sweet, young Maine Coon cat. She purrs more than any cat I have ever met. She even purrs at the veterinarian's office, when getting her temperature taken.
She was born as a feral kitten in July 2003. We first discovered her and her brother, Button, when they were about three weeks old and were brought, by their mother, to feed by our back door. We began working with them almost immediately, paying close attention to the conjunctivitis they both had. We cleaned their eyes, fed them, handled them as much as possible (this was tough, as it took several weeks to gain their trust), and eventually took them to the veterinarian for tests and shots. We use St. Francis Hospital for Animals in Oakdale (631-567-1359) for our pets', and feral cats', veterinary needs.
Unfortunately, we did not get Boots out of "the wild" before she became pregnant in late December, 2003, at about the age of five months. She has been indoors since then. In early March, we set up a nest box for her and prepared for the kittens (we cared for a pregnant feral cat about two years ago, and ended up adopting her, her sister, and two of her kittens).
About Me
You probably wouldn't want to adopt a kitten from a stranger, with no knowledge of that person's experience with animals, so here's a little bit about my animal-related background:
I have had a fondness for animals my entire life. I have always tried to help animals in need, eventually volunteering as a cruelty investigator for the Suffolk County SPCA and, later, as a NY State-licensed wildlife rehabilitator. I wrote a couple of articles for Wildlife Rehabilitation Today in the 90s, and I am a birdwatcher. I have been away from organized animal welfare activities for several years, mostly due to burnout, but have continued to do bits here and there (If you are a regular LongIslandLighthouses.com visitor, you probably know that these days I spend much time with historic research, preservation, and education). Over the last couple of years, I have been working with feral cats in my neighborhood. We have had several spayed and neutered, and taken some for shots and other medical attention. Boots is the second formerly-feral mother cat we have cared for.
If all of the above sounds okay, and you wish to provide a quality home for a healthy cat for many years, please contact me. I can be reached at home at 631-650-5285. Please be patient with me, as my job, volunteer activities, family life, and other activities, keep me quite busy.
Even Uncle Hocus is worn out from the stress of having four new kittens in the house...
Shiloh The Wonder Beagle looks a little bummed out. Maybe it's because we won't let her play with the kittens (she'd think they were squeaky-toys):
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