Maria Morales Professor Garyantes JRN02310 Section 3 December 1, 2016 ATLANTIC CITY, Nj. – People who walk up and down the boardwalk in Atlantic City will see things like the beach, casinos, shops, and one black and white cat. Boo, Boo Boo, or Boots is around 13 to 15 years old. No one is really certain of her age, but the people around the boardwalk have seen her around for a few years. Boo is one of approximately 175 neutered cats that live underneath the boardwalk. Boo is curled up in a ball behind the register of the store where she sleeps sometimes. Her bed is circular and has a gray and white pattern. Beneath her, lays a black blanket that makes her almost disappear. Her white paws and half of her face are the only things that separate her from the blanket. She is sleeping. On Monday, Nov. 14, Boo was attacked by a pit bull on the boardwalk. The owner of the dog, a 75-year-old lady, couldn’t control it. The dog attacked Boo and she couldn’t break free.
Transcript
Maria Morales
Professor Garyantes
JRN02310 Section 3
December 1, 2016
ATLANTIC CITY, Nj. – People who walk up and down the boardwalk in Atlantic City
will see things like the beach, casinos, shops, and one black and white cat.
Boo, Boo Boo, or Boots is around 13 to 15 years old. No one is really certain of her age,
but the people around the boardwalk have seen her around for a few years. Boo is one of
approximately 175 neutered cats that live underneath the boardwalk.
Boo is curled up in a ball behind the register of the store where she sleeps sometimes. Her
bed is circular and has a gray and white pattern. Beneath her, lays a black blanket that makes her
almost disappear. Her white paws and half of her face are the only things that separate her from
the blanket. She is sleeping.
On Monday, Nov. 14, Boo was attacked by a pit bull on the boardwalk. The owner of the
dog, a 75-year-old lady, couldn’t control it. The dog attacked Boo and she couldn’t break free.
There was blood and when Boo finally got free she ran off for 24 hours, said Sam Mohammad.
Mohammad and Alley Cat Allies looked for her for a good 12 hours but they couldn’t
find her. When she did come back she was tired and sweaty.
“Everybody was happy, clapping, just like somebody came from the airport to see. She
was, so many people, join with her,” said Mohammad.
Boo can be found most of the time on the corner of New York Avenue in the boardwalk,
right in front of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum and Fashion Island.
Fashion Island is a clothing and souvenir shop, which Mohammad owns. He has been
taking care of Boo for 14 years now. He has a bed with a heather set up for her, for the winter
season, behind his register. Boo comes inside his store every day and hangs around him. She
even has her own pink and blue bowl, for her to eat, set up in the corner.
“She loves shrimp, tuna. She doesn’t like liver and you know the salmon. She hates
salmon,” said Mohammad. “She likes soupy stuff because she’s old and she loves treats.” Boots
has only missed coming inside his shop one day since he has known her. She is his first
costumer, he said.
Mohammad took on the responsibility of taking care of Boo once Jimmy, an Atlantic City
bathroom attendant, died of a heart attack 10 years ago. Jimmy was one of the first people to
have taken care of boots.
“He used to give her treats that he kept in a yellow beach bucket. He also would take the
broom and scratch her back, she loved that,” said Mary McCloskey.
McCloskey was a cashier who later got promoted to a shift supervisor at Ripley’s Believe
It Or Not Museum. She had worked at Ripley’s since 2007 and that is where she met Boo. She
left the job on Nov. 2015 because her mom and grandfather were ill. Her mom got better but her
grandfather passed away on Dec. 2015.
“As time progressed, I'd call over for her, especially in the cold weather, and I’d have
treats with me. My supervisor, John, would do the same when I worked with him in the
morning,” she said.
McCloskey has taken in one boardwalk cat, with then boyfriend, but she never took Boo.
“I could never take her. The boardwalk has always been her home and that is the element and
environment she is used to and is happy in,” said McCloskey.
“A lot of people try to pet her,” said Haseeb Bukhari “They love her, she looks like a
little penguin cat”. Bukhari is a Rowan University student who currently works at Ripley’s
Believe it Or Not. When Boo is not in Mohammad’s shop, she likes to hand around the museum.
People who pass by Boo always pay attention to her.
“She likes people, but not like people who pet her to hard or like to weird, or kids at all.
Like she really doesn’t like kids,” said Bukhari. He has been working at Ripley’s for about two
years and a half. He has seen Boo come and go since he started working there.
Boo may officially live on the boardwalk but she is not really alone. She gets taken care
of by McCloskey, Mohammed, Ripley’s employees, and by Alley Cat Allies.
Alley Cat Allies is an organization that takes care of cats from all around the world. Their
mission is save the lives of as many cats that they can. Boardwalk Cats Project is their official
name on the boardwalk. The organization gives them food and takes them to the vet whenever
they need it. They also have all the boardwalk cats vaccinated.
According to the Alley Cat Allies website, “When animal control ordered that the
Boardwalk cats be trapped and killed in 2000, Alley Cat Allies stepped in to save them—and
their longstanding relationship with the city and its visitors.”
They have roughly 175 neutered cats on the Atlantic City boardwalk, states the website.
Alley Cat Allies has a program where they take the cats and have them neuter. This helps control
the population on the boardwalk. The cats that have been neutered have their ear clipped to
demonstrate the procedure. Boo is among the cats that have been neutered.
The cats eat on a set schedule so that they can be healthy and the organization can
monitor their health, states one sign on the Atlantic City beach. The organization is made up of
various people who volunteer their time to help with the cats.
“As an added bonus for the community, volunteers help beautify the Boardwalk by
regularly hosting clean-ups,” states the Alley Cat Allies website. They get the support of the local
