Perhaps it was meant as a cruel joke when someone shoved a small fluffy orange cat into the book return at the Spencer Public Library in Spencer, Iowa. Perhaps they thought that since hospitals often take abandoned babies, reason tells us that libraries would be where abandoned cats are accepted. Regardless, when the library director found the slightly frostbitten feline the next morning, she simply couldn’t turn him away.
Dewey Readmore Books
When I first read that Hachette was putting out a book next month about a library cat named Dewey Readmore Books, I assumed it would be a children’s novel, perhaps a sister book to Library Lion.
But no, this is no colorful kid’s book about a pugnacious kitty, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World is a non-fiction Chicken Soup for the Soul-esque account of how a public library in Iowa took in a cat, and everyone was happy.
I find it endearing that I will soon enter a profession where administrators are crazy or quirky enough to allow an animal to live in a public building. I am also amazed that the cat lived in the library for 19 years without crazy library-going moms with sniffly allergic children complaining. Perhaps this cat was just that adorable. His library cat job description is awfully cute, despite it being written by him, which I typically find annoying.
Now my next order of business is convincing my library’s dean to let me bring my cat to work, perhaps on a leash, citing this book as evidence of the virtues of having felines around.
Post Script: This cat is not nearly as magical as the Oscar, the Providence death cat.
Filed under: Book Review, By: Miss Information, libraries, pop culture | Leave a Comment
Tags: books, cats, dewey decimal, Dewey Readmore Books, Iowa, Oscar, professional animals, Providence, public libraries, puss in boots, pussy
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