digitigrade legs as shoes (paws))

I'm trying to make a set of digitigrade legs from the knee down, but I'm worried that you can't change the leg mesh on the rig itself, even when cloning from a boot.

I edited the rig mesh as well as the shoe area, and upon reimport I had detached paw feet with no shin edit.

Is this at all possible without using a full body mesh? Maybe via body preset?

I want the sim to be able to still change into skirts/shorts normally, hence wanting to avoid making a bottom/ shoe combo.