SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

And then came Barney! Our second candidate for Head Library Cat is in the building.

Barney is a huge orange tabby who was a stray headed to a kill shelter a few months ago. Luckily Feline Rescue and Rehome had a foster home opening and now Barney is auditioning for a new job.

He was nervous at first, until Patrick, Lea and Hope spent a whole period brushing him. That is all it took for him to become comfortable.

“You will like it here,” they told him. “We are all nice.”

Barney  then settled down and is taking to the job really well, even sitting in my lap to watch Jumanji along with the first graders.

By his second day he was sitting in Alex’s bed on the front desk, waiting for the 5th and 6th graders to come.

“Barney?” one student asked. “We might have to find him another name!”

It didn’t take long for Makayla and Brianna to have Barney sandwiched between them in a tight hug. They wanted to know if we can call him Alex the second.

Sure. I’m fine with them calling him anything they want to.

Some of the students had asked me for pictures of Footsie, SnuggleBunny and Alex so they could make posters.

Barney planted himself on the table while some read, some worked on posters, and he got brushed.

I fired questions at the kids while we did a review for their ACTAAP exams which are this week. Wow, maybe they really were listening during all these library skills lessons! They fired correct answers right back at me.

I had gone on a sentimental “field trip” one evening earlier in the week.

I couldn’t get the Harley-Davidson cap, which Alex had tried on at PetSmart, out of my mind. I kept thinking of it as Alex’s cap and wishing I had bought it.

So I walked through the store, taking the same path Alex and I had so happily taken such a short time ago, and ended up in the D-O-G department. There had been only one size small cap that day and it was still there, complete with little orange Alex hairs inside.

We tried it on Barney Friday, and he looked really cool.

Since he is so calm, I put a harness and leash on him, and the Harley cap, and we went outside to join the kids and staff in our annual Health Walk.

What a great job Barney did, posing with the kids and resting calmly over Mr. G’s shoulder – a spot which was a favorite place for Footsie and Alex before him.

And so things change but life goes on.

We are still enjoying the sweet smell of Alex’s flowers here in the library, and I am writing thank-you’s to friends who have made memorial donations to Feline Rescue and Rehome in his honor.

Tank and Barney are on duty now. Whether or not either of them ends up as our Head Library Cat, I am sure that both will be part of the Library Cat staff.