SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

Not long before school was out we received our long-awaited yearbooks.

Every year our library cat is pictured in the Faculty section, having sat for a school picture just like all the students and staff. Footsie became a pro at it, with school pictures that ranged from serious to one looking like a mug shot!

I love to look back at previous yearbooks and read notes written to him. In his last yearbook Makayla told him, “I love you so much, big guy. You make my heart feel happy.”

Alex did himself proud this past fall on school picture day, and in the new yearbook his picture leads off the Faculty section.

Every year I buy a yearbook, put a sticker on it saying that it is “Big Footsie’s Yearbook”, and ask all the kids to sign it.

When I put it on the counter this year, Mary looked at it a little and then asked me, “What are you going to call it this year?”

I didn’t understand at first what she meant, and she said, “Well, we don’t have Big Footsie any more, so we can’t call it Footsie’s yearbook.”

We talked about it a little and I asked her opinion.

“We could always call it Alex’s yearbook if you think that is a good idea,” I told her, “Or we can call it something else. You can decide.”

So Alex’s yearbook it is, and I printed out a sticker to go on the cover to say that.

As always, lots of the kids wanted to sign the book. Their entries ranged from simple signatures, to Lea’s “I will always remember and love Alex. And all of the library cats,” written with hearts surrounding the words.

And there was Trinity’s heartfelt message, “Alex and Staff, Staff thank you for stepping up when Alex had to leave us. You have all done a great job and are all very loved. Alex, my sweet orange kitty, I have and will always miss you. You were one of the best library cats and will be missed by me forever. I love you.”

I had dreaded seeing a yearbook without Big Footsie in it, but he was there, too.

On a page near the front of the book was a photo of the elementary kids gathered at our school sign on Remembering Big Footsie Day last September.

The sign read:

“We Remember Big Footsie.” And the accompanying caption read “Big Footsie lives on in the memories of all the lives he touched. Forever will he be loved.”

And next year’s yearbook? Who will be in it and what will we call it?

Our English teacher who does our yearbook has assured me that if Shadow and Barney share the Head Library Cat job she will guarantee us two spots in the Faculty section rather than our usual one.

That is an offer that just may be too good to pass up.