FOR the Slade family, Boots, their black and white cat, was a Godsend during the covid-19 lockdown. The moggy kept the couple’s two young children occupied during the long months of isolation and his friendly, rasping purr made them all smile. But in May this year, Boots was found dead in the street near their home in Salisbury, Wilts .
Pellets fired from a catapult lay next to his lifeless body. Now, for the first time, the family have spoken of their devastating loss - and welcomed tough new measures police have introduced to tackle anti-social behaviour. Stacey Slade, 35, fought back tears as she recalled the joy four-year-old Boots had brought her family.
Speaking from her home in the Bemerton Heath area of the historic city, where she and her husband Jack moved ten years ago, she said: "We decided to get Boots during the lockdown because we wanted some company for the children and our pet dog. "He was an instant success with us all, especially our young, four-year-old daughter. When Boots was attacked and killed by those yobs we were all utterly devastated.
It was such an unbelievably cruel thing to do. “Afterwards, we couldn’t bring ourselves to tell the children what had happened to poor Boots, so instead, we told them he had died in an accident. "We just didn't have the heart to tell them the truth because it was horrible.
“My daughter was particularly upset. She cried and cried and told us off for not taking him to the vets to 'make him better again’, as sh.
