BY SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

This week my 1^st-3^rd graders come to the library for the first time this year. Alex was lying on the front desk this morning enjoying the attention of Big Footsie’s very best friend on campus, our instrumental music teacher, Mr. G. He and the Foots were buddies from the day they met.

Even this spring when Footsie felt awful after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and high blood pressure and starting on multiple meds, he would get up off his fuzzy green frog and come out to visit with Mr.G.

As the 3^rd graders came in they were saying “Yea, you brought Alex today!”

Soon, though, someone said, “Where is Big Footsie?”

The kids’ teacher whispered above their heads that they didn’t know about him yet. I looked at Mr. G and mostly in jest asked if he wanted to take that question.

Sometimes a hero comes in a tall, musically talented, library cat-loving package! That is what happened today as he took the children to a table and began to talk about Cat Heaven and Big Footsie and how Footsie hadn’t felt good and now how he was running and playing in Cat Heaven, which is a beautiful, happy place.

“My cat Kissy-Face died,” said one student.

“Well, don’t you think Big Footsie and Kissy-Face met up in Cat Heaven and are playing together and talking about you?” Kissy-Face’s mom liked that idea.

Mr. G talked about how happy they were and how we still love them even though we miss them. “My cat Trouble died, too,” said another student.

The class decided that all three are playing together now. “What happened to Footsie?” I had explained last spring that Footsie’s heart was sick and that he had to take lots of pills. The kids remembered that. “Where was he when he died?” I told them that he had been in my arms.

For the rest of the period we talked about Big Footsie and Kissy-Face and Trouble. Each child made a page for Footsie’s memory book, with pictures and things they remembered about him. As they worked I read to them, a wonderful book called Cat Heaven, by Cynthia Rylant:

“A cat may be late getting to Cat Heaven…there’s just so much fun on the way! There are angels, of course, with soft angel laps where kitties can purr loud and strong. The cats in Cat Heaven are so loved and spoiled…” When a cat needs to she can sit on a cloud and watch the world and the “house where she once lived and wandered, and the people who loved her inside.”

My students are sure Footsie and Kissy-Face and Trouble are watching us and know how much we love them.

After the story  Kissy-Face’s mom looked up at me. “I will always have Big Footsie in my heart,” she said, even as she hugged Alex close.

I smiled at her. “Me, too.”