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Library Cats
Thursday, Mar. 25, 2004 at 2:57 p.m.

I saw this article and couldn't resist posting it...I want a cat at my library!

*****

Library Cats

by Marti Attoun

The shelves at the Spencer Public Library are filled with happy-ending stories, but they can�t hold a whisker to the one that began on a freezing January morning 16 years ago.

On that fateful day, Director Vicki Myron unlocked the library in Spencer, Iowa, (pop. 11,317) and brewed a pot of coffee. She and a staff member heard a whimpering, tracked it to the book drop in a back room, and opened the lid. Huddled in a heap of hardbacks was a bedraggled yellow kitten.

�The pads of his little feet were frozen,� Myron recalls. �We gave him a bath just to warm him up and he purred the whole time.�

That was 1988 and the rest is a Cinderella story for Dewey Readmore Books, the orphaned feline who has lived happily among the books ever since.

�His story has a life of its own,� Myron says while sifting through the cat�s fan mail. �We have people drive hundreds of miles out of their way just to see Dewey. We had a Japanese public television crew come here.�

Shortly after the kitten�s rescue, city officials approved the library�s cat-in-residence and a photo of the city�s �new employee� sitting on the card catalog appeared in The Daily Reporter in Spencer. Residents were invited to help name the kitty and 394 cast ballots.

�We�ve never had such a turnout for a contest and there wasn�t even a prize,� Myron says with a laugh.

No one can pinpoint how or when Dewey catapulted from local glamour puss to Mr. January pinup in a national cat calendar. A mention from broadcaster Paul Harvey about the orphaned kitty that brightens a library helped. So did an article in Postcard Collector magazine featuring Dewey�s four postcard poses for a library fund-raiser. His acting debut in Puss in Books: Adventures of the Library Cat, a video documentary, sealed his fame.

Library cats greet patrons in about 125 libraries across America. Most live and �work� in cozy, small-town libraries where they don�t get lost in the stacks. Historically, library cats earned their keep doing rodent patrol, but modern library cats have more white-collar duties: to act charming and make the library a welcoming and homey place.

�Library cats just create a nice, warm atmosphere,� says filmmaker Gary Roma, 37, producer of Puss in Books and owner of Iron Frog Productions in Boston. The stand-up comedian gives programs nationwide about library cats and maintains an online state-by-state directory of library cats, present and past. Many libraries belong to the Library Cat Society, founded in 1987 by Phyllis Lahti of Moorhead, Minn., (pop. 32,177) to encourage libraries to curl up with a good cat.

�The cats attract children to the library and the elderly who maybe can�t have pets in their apartment,� Roma says. �Books, libraries, and cats just go together.�

Dewey, the golden boy, moseys over to a 10-by-13-inch envelope box and settles in with one paw draped over the side. Even when he catnaps in the staff room, Dewey attracts visitors. Drew Horst, 2 1/2, makes a beeline toward him while hand-in-hand with his father, Jim Horst.

�Every two weeks we come and get books and we get diverted to find Dewey the cat,� Jim explains. �Drew likes to read animal books.�

The toddler gets down on his hands and knees and snuggles his blond head against the cat�s.

�Dewey, Dewey,� he whispers.

Cats from coast-to-coast

�Not every cat could work in a library,� notes Judy Whitt, director of the Azle Public Library in Azle, Texas, (pop. 9,600) �but this one is doing just fine. Molli loves people.�

Stephanie Boren, a patron, has a favorite Molli story: �One day my son Michael sat down at the computer and Molli hopped on the table behind him and started massaging his neck,� she recalls. �Everyone loves the library cat.�

Molli is so popular, in fact, that she was catnapped near closing time one Saturday. Frantic staff members taped up �Molli Missing� posters. On Monday morning, a resident returned the overdue cat.

�She claimed to have found her, but then slipped and said the cat didn�t really get along with her dog,� Whitt says. No fines were collected. They were just happy to have Molli out of circulation and back on the job.

The Ocean Shores Library in Ocean Shores, Wash., (pop. 3,836) created its library cat position in 1999 after a survey revealed that 98 percent of the patrons favored a furry staff member.

Michelle Olson, library clerk, presented the results to the library�s board of trustees. During the meeting, a member left to make a phone call, returned and announced that an applicant would be arriving within five minutes. The calico kitten had been dumped beside the road.

�It took less than a minute to know that she was the one,� Olson says. �She let each person hold and pet her without complaint, purring all the while.� They named the black, white, and peach-splotched kitten Trixie, in honor of Trixie Belden, the fictional girl detective in the children�s mystery series.

Trixie has her own checkbook to pay for food and veterinary bills. As with all of these library cats, patrons �feed the kitty� donation can.

In Mystic, Conn., (pop. 4,001) Emily, the resident cat at the cozy 1891 Mystic & Noank Library, also has a name with a rich literary heritage. She�s named after authors Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson.

�People come in just to see Emily. She�s pretty famous,� says Diane Gillece, librarian assistant. �Everyone comments on her pretty green eyes.�

The throwaway kitten joined the staff in 1989 and now has her own line of note cards and Christmas ornaments. She cheers readers by twirling with the new books on the revolving bookcase and sprawling flat on her back, paws straight up, at the end of an aisle. And she never passes up an elevator ride.

�She�s getting a bit of a weight problem and we�ve been encouraging her to take the stairs,� Gillece says.

Security patrol

Sometimes library cats mimic watchdogs�without the bark or bite. Such was the case with Page, the library cat at the Gladstone Public Library in Gladstone, Ore. (pop. 11,438).

�Between January and March, I bet I had half a dozen calls from the police that the security alarm had gone off,� says Catherine Powers, library director. �I�d have to drag out of bed at 1 a.m. or 3 a.m. and check the building and reset the alarm.�

Powers assumed that the alarm system was faulty because the motion sensor was set too high for 10-pound Page to trigger. A company employee checked out the system and offered the only logical explanation.

�He said, �I think that cat is sliding down the banister.��

Powers assured him that was ridiculous.

A few weeks later, Page strolled along the mezzanine stair railing, then just as pretty as you please, turned and slid down the banister.

�We just all started laughing,� Powers says.

Meanwhile, back in Iowa, Myron says having a cat in the library promotes camaraderie among the staff as much as among the patrons.

Her staff keeps a camera handy to capture Dewey�s antics. Snapshots show Dewey riding atop the book cart, sacked out on a wall partition with one paw dangling over the clock, and standing at the front door waving a paw, which is how he greets Myron each morning.

Birthday-party pictures abound. Townspeople are always invited. Hundreds of patrons sign cards for Dewey. The celebrity cat�s likeness adorns the Spencer library cards and a mosaic wall in the city�s East Leach Park. He�s the subject of two book chapters, which gives him his own Library of Congress listing.

�He definitely adds warmth and friendliness,� says Mary Walk, children�s librarian, as she strokes Dewey�s head. He closes his eyes and purrs.

�People have connected with Dewey worldwide,� Walk adds. �He�s the most famous person in Spencer.�

Marti Attoun is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

bite back // scratch away

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