Puss 'n Boots Can't Find His Boots

Puss ‘n Boots

Can’t find his boots

He woke up today

And got out of bed

And his boots

Were not

Where he left them

He put on his hat

And he sheathed his sword

And made his way to town

To see if anyone

Had found his boots

But as he walked up

To friends and neighbors

And asked them
If they’d seen

His missing boots

Nobody recognized him

For Puss ‘n Boots

Without his boots

Was not Puss ‘n Boots at all

And to many

He looked like any other

Cat with a hat

And a sword

When word got back

To the town’s Cat-Catcher

That there was a Puss-with-No-Boots

Wandering around town

The Cat-Catcher hurried

To the square

Where he found the little cat

Looking under cafe tables

And behind statues

For his lost boots

The Cat-Catcher wasn’t concerned

With whatever it was

This feline was hunting for

For he had a job to do

He scooped up Puss-Without-His-Boots

In a net

And brought him

To the Cat Cavern

A cave on the beach

Outside of town

Where all the wayward cats lived

And no matter how much Puss protested

That he was not a wayward cat

That he had a home

That he had a bookcase

That he had boots before they disappeared

The Cat Catcher had heard it all before

From other orphaned cats

And he deposited Puss

In the cave

And went back to town

To carry on

With his day

Puss introduced himself

To the other cats in the cavern

But he felt strange

Saying he was the famous

Puss ‘n Boots

When he had no boots to display

Another cat in the cave

Named Ticker Tape

Explained to Puss

That while perhaps

He was named the way he was

Because, at one time, he had boots

Now it was his name

And so he was entitled to it

Whether he had boots or not

This changed the way

Puss felt about his mission

To find the missing boots

And so he summoned his adventurous spirit

And informed all the cats in the cave

Or the cavern

Or the cavernous cave

That he would lead them

Out of this dank and dreary place

And through to town

And to his home

Where they could all feast and revel

They got in a line

And parading they went

Around the town square

As the Cat Catcher watched

From the fourth-floor window

Of the home where lives

Too scared to go down

And confront the cats

Now that they had a leader

The cats got to the home

Of Puss ‘n Boots

And he fixed them all dinner

And bowls of milk

And as he was cleaning out his pantry

Looking for extra cans of tuna

There, next to the rutabaga broth,

Were the boots

He couldn’t find earlier

How they got in the pantry

Puss could not know

And he found

He had no interest in knowing

Or even putting on

The boots

Because now they were not

How people knew him

Not what made him him

They were just boots

And, at times, ill-fitted boots

That hurt his little paws

So he closed the pantry door

Having retrieved the tuna

And went back to cook

A fine meal

For all

His new friends