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Being a cat, Puss in Boots had a total of nine lives. Like the human looking Time Lords on the planet Gallifrey, cats could regenerate, this being the means by which they lived nine times through eight regenerations. When a cat suffered fatal damage, would have died from sickness, got too old, or suffered too much fatigue, they were put into a brief state of grace. When it expired, they regenerated, their appearance changing. It was quite damaging to their surroundings, though.
Puss was quite reckless with his lives. During the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, he was running from the group of bulls but saw a lady he wanted to hit on. He stopped, turned around, and said, “Hola, señorita. Do you like gazpacho?”
A bull caught up to him, trampling and goring him. Puss regenerated on the spot, his orange fur turning brown and his hat and boots burning up. The bull was freaked out and so were the people, causing them all to run away.
Later, after getting new boots and a baseball cap to replace the ones he lost, Puss was at a game of poker with several dogs. Having cheated, he had five aces, one for each suit and another ace of clubs. The dogs mauled him, fleeing when he regenerated again. This time, his fur pattern became that of a tabby cat.
His boots were rendered unwearable again and so was his hat, so in lieu of a hat, Puss chose to wear a scarf. He got boots that were claimed to be fire resistant since his regenerations often set his surroundings on fire.
The third life of Puss in Boots came to an end when he got drunk from milk (that had added alcohol), went on top of a tall tower, and said, “I am telling you, a cat always lands on his feet! Watch!”
Even if cats could reorient themselves in midair to land on their feet, even they were not immune to fall damage, which Puss realized after walking off the tower when he started to regenerate upon hitting the ground. The alcoholic milk jug broke too, but his fourth life had a tortoiseshell pattern on his fur and a mustache. Since Puss had gotten fire resistant boots the last time he had regenerated, they were damaged but still wearable. His scarf was not so lucky.
Puss died for the fourth time when he was at a gym lifting weights. He said, “No! Puss in Boots doesn’t need a spotter.”
He tried to lift a weight heavier than he was, but it crushed him. As he regenerated again, he became a Turkish Van. His boots from his third life turned to ash, so he had to get new boots. It was then that he remembered to get a new hat and belt, those and his new cape being green.
Puss in Boots’ fifth life ended on a boat where instead of trying to pull into port, he tried to create a new way to travel by launching himself out of a cannon. He said, “No need to pull into port. This will revolutionize travel. Watch!”
The cannon went off, something that killed him. He regenerated as he went flying, his hat being left behind on the boat. His sixth life was a Maine Coon cat, one of the biggest breeds of cat.
Puss’ sixth death came from his allergy to shellfish. He was at a restaurant and asked a waitress, “Uh, excuse me, does this have shellfish in it?”
“Yes, sir.” the waitress replied.
Puss ate it anyway, dying and regenerating as a Siamese cat. He chose to become an ogre hunter. When King Harold of Far, Far Away hired him to kill Shrek, an ogre who was the husband of Fiona and the next in line to be the king, Shrek and Donkey, his talking donkey sidekick, befriended him instead. Puss made many more friends, like the Gingerbread Man.
Puss died for the seventh time when he was baking with Gingy, as he was called for short. The Gingerbread Man said, “Puss, I think you set the oven too high!”
“I am a master of the baking. Watch!” Puss replied. Gingy got out of the way as Puss opened it and was engulfed in fire, regenerating into his eighth life as a solid black cat.
Puss burnt through his eighth life when a giant bell crushed him after his defeat of the Sleeping Giant of Del Mar. His ninth life gave him a gray coat. The first clothes besides his boots that he could find was a costume of a Pop Tart.
When he was taken to the doctor, Puss remembered all of his deaths and said, “So what is that? Like… four?”
“That makes eight, Puss. You’re down to your last life and out of regenerations,” the doctor replied.