Kids welcome potential library cat assistant
SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS
On Fridays, I have my fifth- and sixth-graders together.
This morning we had a very serious discussion. I asked a couple of questions and then listened as they talked. Feline Rescue and Rehome has taken a wonderful 6-month-old kitten from a Missouri rescue group where she was facing euthanasia.
Sabrina, aka SnuggleBunny, is a sealpoint Siamese, chubby and playful, never meeting a stranger. Alex is in the market for an assistant library cat or two. Big Footsie always had several assistants, which allowed him to have some vacation time.
SnuggleBunny sounds like she was made for the job – except for one thing. She is positive for the feline leukemia virus. My students are familiar with that. Several of Big Footsie’s assistants over the years were positive, including Daisy, Valley and Bill Murray. For a kitten born feline leukemia positive, the lifespan will be short, often only 1-3 years.
How would my students feel about that, after losing Big Footsie so recently? We settled down on the beanbags and they told me how they felt.
“Since she was going to die if she stayed in Missouri I think she should stay here and be happy with us,” said Makayla.
Markissha’s feeling was that “I don’t like to see lots of cats die, but I think we should give her a happy life.”
Mary, my secondary work-study student, suggested that we “just love her to death while we have her.”
Each student got a chance to express an opinion.
Several thought that it would be better to bring her only when the older students are here. I agree with that.
Many of my secondary students met SnuggleBunny in the hall before school this morning. She was comfortable with the crowd and even the bells that rang. To a person, their reaction was positive. “Keep bringing her,” more than one told me, as did the teachers who were also crowded around.
I will give everyone time to think about this and to let me know if they change their mind or if they think having SnuggleBunny around will make them too sad.
One of my 5th graders expressed what seems to be the majority opinion. “You should keep bringing her, and we can make her happy and give her as good a life as Big Footsie and Alex.”
Alex just may have his first assistant!
Susan Loesch has been the librarian at the Arkansas School for the Blind for 35 years and is on the board of Feline Rescue and Rehome. She started the library cat program about 10 years ago after much animal therapy research.
SnuggleBunny should certainly have her chance to bask in the love of the children who obviously understand the circumstances that attain to her and want only to love her while they have her. She deserves to have as happy a life–however long or short–as Big Footsie had and Alex has.
You go girl!
Susan M
What great compassionate caring kids! The years spent with Big Footsie, Alex and all the library cats has a lot to do with that, I’m sure. The Library Cat concept is such a great idea! Every library should have them. I’m sure SnuggleBunny would love to be an assistant library cat.