SUSAN LOESCH

A new week, and it’s back to work for Shadow, head library cat at Arkansas School for the Blind.

The excitement hasn’t worn off for either the kids or Shadow. He is, however, settling back into the job, and there are signs that he already feels like it is his library.

One of the things he does first every morning is knock one of Big Footsie’s photos down the book return. He then makes sure my computer is working. That involves standing on the keyboard and making sure he gets just the right “beep, beep,  beep.” Sometimes it takes lying on the keyboard to be sure.

I’m settling in, too, and remembering a few of the things I’d forgotten about having a feline co-worker.

Number one rule is don’t … absolutely DO NOT … put my coffee cup down any place that Shadow can reach. It WILL be knocked over no matter how full of hot coffee it is.

Yep, I was reminded of that the hard way, and it involved a whole lot of paper towels. Maybe I should also mention that said cup of coffee was right by my computer.

Also, do not leave my lunch sitting on my desk. Only part of it will be
there later if I don’t guard it.

On the positive side, if I am caught talking to myself I can always say I was
talking to Shadow.

Shad’s first customers of the day were some of my fifth graders, coming to get books. All decked out in a handsome yellow bandana, he made it hard for them to follow our “Books Before Cats” rule as he tried to help them pick out books. He continued to offer his help to everyone who came in all morning.

Shadow switched from bandana to a tie before the first graders came.

He took time for a visit from his buddy Mr. Gould, our instrumental music instructor, who had a little man-to-man advice.

“That tie,” he told Shadow, “is too loud for this job. It looks more like something you’d wear on vacation in Florida to attract the babes.”

Everyone got a laugh out of that.

My first graders, who have asked, on a weekly basis, when the cats would be back, were so excited to come to the library. We’ve been working on our “Books Before Cats” rule for a week now, and they had it down, hard as it was to follow.

While Shadow spent time in my office, we had a fun library skills activity. Inspired by Laura Numeroff’s books, each student completed the sentence, “When you give a Library Cat a…” and then added their illustrations.

We had “When you give a library cat a piece of gum he will get fat” and “When you give a Library cat a pretty bow she will want a friend.”

Library skills out of the way, out came Shadow. The kids held him, squeezed him, crawled cat-like on the floor after him, meowing all the way and, of course, fed him lots of treats. I think Shadow had a ball, and I know the kids did.

Later in the day Makayla came in; she has always been one of my biggest cat lovers and one of Big Footsie’s biggest fans.

Probably not a week goes by that she doesn’t mention him.

Shadow was rolling on the desk and of course knocked off books, pictures, pencils and more.

“He’s gonna be just like Big Footsie,” Makayla exclaimed.

“He’s taking Big Footsie’s place.” Then she stopped.

“No, “she said,” Nobody can ever take Big Footsie’s place. Shadow is just covering for him!”

Then she asked me to take a picture of her holding our portraits of Footsie and Alex.

So as we head toward the close of the school year we finally have our kids and cats back together.

Shadow is settling in as our new head library cat, and we have a new normal.

He isn’t Big Footsie, or Alex; he is making the job all his own.

Every one seems to agree that Shadow is already doing a great job filling some awfully big paws here at ASB.

SUSAN LOESCH

Here we are back at school; it’s Registration Day, when the kids come back. I remember this day last year, Alex with me, bad news about Footsie to deliver to the kids. I wondered if we would make it through the year.

Make it we did, even with Alex’s sudden death, and now a new year begins.

Shadow, Barney, Hexie and Tank will share Library Cat duties, with Shadow and Barney as co-Head
Library Cats.

They all got plenty of work experience with our weekly field trips during the summer.

Shadow was here with me the week the staff had meetings, and he has had a ball!

Lots of staff members have come by to say hello to him, and he has been at his charming best as he greeted them!

Mail continues to come in during the summer, so the library is always piled high when I come back in August. To Shadow this made for a wonderful playground, boxes stacked on the front desk so high that he could go face-to-face with the great white shark model some of the kids created in
art years ago. It will “swim” in the air over the desk until the day I retire and then it will “dive.”

Shadow met his good friend, our instrumental music director, with enthusiasm.

I think they were both smiling as Shadow rolled and head-butted as he was petted. Mr. G. pronounced him very Footsie-esque, which is a big compliment. His Footsie traits include not only the good things but some not so good!

One of the first things Shadow did was go for the Styrofoam cup full of coffee on my desk and knock it over. That got the cup out of his way so he could roll on the desk and my keyboard!

When one of our mobility instructors, Ms. Pam, came in, he was ready to play and rolled and played with her hand.

She brings her mobility students to the library, and they get some kitty time as part of their lessons.

Our English teacher, Ms. Cynda, had ordered lots of books for her students and she came up to see what we had gotten in.

Shadow helped her unpack the boxes and look through the books.

We all think the kids will be excited with the new reading material.

Every time I left the library, Shadow sat looking at the door, talking.

When I would come back, there he was, watching for me.

He was probably thinking, “Come on back, Mom, we have work to do to get ready for our kids!”

It won’t be long; another year of adventures is about to begin.

SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

What a busy few days we have had, with the final Acelerated Reader rally coming up and students reading to reach their goals so that they can go on their reward field trips. I have been busy taking the last few reading poster pictures and creating the posters.

Friday, Hexie was here for her photo shoot. She posed gracefully every time she was asked and then busied herself offering to be held and checking on the students as they worked.

“I love her feet, one student said. She has the skinniest feet of all the library cats.”

She is the smallest and lightest cat we’ve had for a long time.

This was only her second visit, but you’d think she’d been coming for years she was so relaxed.

Today, Shadow is here. More students need their poster pictures taken, and they have asked for Shadow to pose with them.

Hexie may be the smallest kitty we’ve had in some time, but Shadow has got to be the busiest!

He reminds me of a young Footsie, into everything, on everything (including my computer keyboard), knocking things off the counter right and left!

“Good job, Shadow,” the kids tell him. They are loving having another cat who knocks things over like Footsie did.

Shadow started the day visiting with Lea.

“He should be the main library cat,” she said. “He is just perfect.”

He enjoyed her petting and thought her black fingernail polish was cool. It does, after all, match his shiny coat.

Mr. G. came in to say hi to Shadow and check out his new very masculine zebra-patterned collar. “That collar gives you a whole new persona, Dude,” he told Shadow.

Several of today’s pictures were taken with the third graders.

After approving of his photo, one of the boys gave Shadow’s claws a closer inspection.

“Why are they so sharp?” he asked. “And why do they stick out?” “Do you have some of those special scissors to cut them?”

I know it is supposed to be “Books Before Cats” around here, but it was just such a great time to show how to clip a cat’s claws and explain how claws work. Shadow was the perfect gentlemen both while his claws were inspected and while they were clipped.

That, however, was the last time that period that he was still, and our “Books Before Cats” rule went out the window!

The kids started playing with him with string and cat toys. Shadow chased the string and the kids chased him. The kids were laughing and talking all at once, and Shadow just played on.

We all had a good time having “Cats Before Books” for a day! We are nothing around here if not flexible.

SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

Yeah, it is Friday! The kids and teachers are glad because testing is over, and the library cats are glad because next week the elementary students will be back in the library. They have been missed, but there have been extra secondary kids hanging out here and we’ve enjoyed that.

Both Tank and Barney have gotten lots of attention.

“Ms. Loesch, come HERE!” called Mary. She and Tank were in my office and she had a handful of treats. “Tank won’t eat treats. He can’t be a library cat unless he eats treats.” Not to worry. He does like treats; he just wants to pick them up himself rather than having them offered in a hand.

Barney is less of a treat-eater than Tank; he has to work on that. Our speech teacher brings her youngest students in armed with treats and they expect them to be eaten by a library cat!

Of course there are my fourth graders who recently sampled the treats themselves … but that just wouldn’t be the same.

Both Tank and Barney have modeled the Harley-Davidson cap. Their vote seems to be unanimous; it gets a big paws down.

The cap has gotten the kids talking about next Halloween. With the Harley cap and bandana, all we need to do is find a leather jacket and we will have a biker-cat costume.

Trinity, my junior, who has been my student since kindergarten, was petting Tank. “It is just not the same, is it, Ms. Loesch? When Big Footsie died we already had Alex. He was already a library cat, and we loved him. This time we don’t have anybody.”

She is right. And from now on we won’t go without at least one assistant library cat as well as our “head” cat. It seems that for now Barney will have the “head” job with Tank as his assistant. Barney has gotten the hang of the job a little quicker.

He will roam the library looking for people to hang out with, and he stays on the front desk most of the time … except when he is following someone around. Mary says that he likes to play “follow the leader.” He has also mastered the “sleeping on the desk between the keyboard and monitor” job.

This week he gotten to spend a lot of time with Zee, our Turkish exchange student. We took pictures of them for Zee to have when she goes home.

As she stood with her hand on Barney’s side, her interest in becoming a doctor kicked in.

“He is breathing so fast. Do cats breathe faster than people? What is his normal temperature? How do you know if he is sick? If I ever get a cat, now I will know more about how to take care of it.”

These words make me smile, coming from my student who earlier in the year had never petted a cat and was afraid of them. Alex made her love him, and now Barney and Tank are picking up where he left off.

We still have a couple of candidates for library cat who will be auditioning, but it looks like both Team Barney and Team Tank will be happy; both the guys are on the library cat staff for sure!

SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

It is Friday, the last day before spring break, and spring is just a few days away. It feels like a day to celebrate.

Since we had an Accelerated Reader rally scheduled for the library this morning, I put a spring-looking, happy-feeling bandana on Alex.

To me he looked really festive and handsome.

Enter the elementary students for the rally.

Dominique to me, as she petted Alex: “Ms. Loesch.” Pause. “Alex’s bandana is pink.”

She said it in a tone that made me feel a little defensive.

“But it has tan and orange in it, too. Do you think it is too sissy for him?”

“Well,” she said, “It is pretty and it matches his skin, but it is PINK.”

In came Brianna.

“Don’t you think Alex’s bandana is too girly?” Dominique asked her.

Brianna nodded her head. “It is PINK.”

Alex watched the rally as students who have reached their 75% or 100% reading goals for the year were awarded prizes.

Afterward, Alex met Brianna’s “Book Bandit” raccoon and Nicholas’ cat whose bandana proclaimed “Reading is Purrrr-fect.”

He got a kiss from Bailey, who made me feel much better when she announced that Alex’s pink bandana was “really cute!”

Later in the morning Mary was petting Alex as he was dropping off to sleep.

“Alex,” I heard her say, “You look good. It takes a REAL man to wear pink.”

SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

Earlier this week I was reading a St. Patrick’s Day story to the kindergarten class, and they were all excited about the holiday.

Their teacher and I listened to them talk about catching leprechauns, and we were puzzled as to just why this particular holiday had them so pumped up.

I think I have figured it out, though, with a little help from Brianna.

When I came in on Wednesday morning there was Brianna standing in the middle of the hall outside her classroom. She took a look at me and then exclaimed, “BARNACLES!” (You may have heard her!)

She had seen that I was wearing green and was protected against pinches.

“Alex will be wearing green, too, so you can’t pinch him, either,” I told her.

Don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that the excitement for the day was all about the pinches!

Later Alex and I went to Brianna’s classroom, and the class posed with Brandon and their teacher, all decked out in green. No pinches there. Barnacles.

Alex was offered many of his treats during the day — green ones, of course — but for some reason he didn’t eat any until they were offered by his buddy, Mr. G.

Whew, I was ready to call his vet for an appointment; he always wants treats.

He ate enough from Mr. G. to prove that he was fine.

He also wasn’t interested in his cat grass. I took it home last night, and Piper mowed it down. That Piper is a walking, meowing plant demolition squad.

This morning one of our pee-wee wrestlers brought his newly-won medal by and excitedly showed it to Alex.

When Mary picked up the library mail as part of her work-study job there on top was the surprise of the day, an envelope addressed to Alex, Arkansas School for the Blind Library, and stamped with all kinds of cats in red ink.

Mary showed it to Alex and then opened it.

It was a newsletter from an animal rescue group, and there was a story about tiny kittens abandoned in a box.

“You know all about that, don’t you Alex,” Mary said to him.

And of course he does, as that was what happened to him that led to his coming to us.

After reading the story, we decided Alex needed a treat, so Mary opened him a can of Tuna and Prawn Dinner in Aspic.

Alex is not the least bit spoiled, is he?!

SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

Most of the time Alex is a pretty darn laid back guy. He handles fire drills and tornado drills just fine, and he doesn’t even move a whisker when the bell rings even if he is sitting on the front desk right beneath it.

But vacuum cleaners — that is an entirely different thing. Alex hates the sound of the vacuum cleaner!

Most mornings, Ms. Verda comes in to vacuum the library, and when she leaves I know exactly where to look to find a hiding Mr. Alex.

At the first hum of the vacuum he heads to my back office and goes right behind my computer monitor where he stays ‘til the coast is clear.

He came out of hiding today to the sound of the voices of my second graders. They were all excited because they have learned how to do cartwheels.

So Alex sat in his bed on the front desk while they showed us what they can do. We do have our rule, Books Before Cats, but nowhere does it say anything about Books Before Cartwheels!

After the cartwheel show, the girls got bubble gum treats for passing quizzes on Footsie’s Favorites, and of course Alex had to have treats, too.

As he ate from their hands they giggled as they told us, “It tickles!”

Watching him gobble up the green treats one student asked if he could see their color. We stopped and checked on the Internet to see just what colors cats can see, and sure enough, green and blue are the two they see best.

Then it was down to work on Library Skills for us and time for a nap for Alex!

SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

I’ve always thought of January and February as the draggy, dull months in the school year. Alex assures me that isn’t so, at least for him.

Last week, our secondary social studies students staged a history parade, complete with costumes, signs and drums. Alex had to go out and see what was happening in the hall, and he had his picture taken with the group.

One student in the parade was our exchange student from Turkey.

As Alex was passed from person to person, our new student asked if she could hold him.

“Of course,” I said. I was aware that she hadn’t petted him or held him while hanging out in the library. I soon found out why.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “This is the first time in my life I have ever held an animal!”

How exciting to be a part of her warming up to Alex and maybe taking her first steps toward becoming a lifelong animal lover!

We have been anxiously watching the weather reports this week! It is Spirit Week at Arkansas School for the Blind, leading up to our Homecoming Parade, winding through Hillcrest, on Friday. We are not liking the 80% rain chance.

Spirit Week, though, is in high gear and Alex is involved to the max.

On Stars and Stripes Day, he wore his flag-print bandana and posed with his secondary buddies who also wore red, white and blue.

For Fairy Tale Day, he dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, complete with red cape, and hung out for a while with Makayla, who was dressed as the same character.

On Western Day, Alex wore a wild mustang-print bandana. Alas, little kitty cowboy boots were nowhere to be found, which is probably why Alex was so happy all day!

After Dress-Up Day, wearing a tie, Alex will ride in his own float Friday in the parade.

We have finished the big signs with his picture and the words “Alex, ASB Library Cat.”
This will be Alex’s first Homecoming Parade and he is ready to roll!

SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

There’s nothing like a good story to end the week! My 5th and 6th graders came for their weekly library time and we stuck to our rule of “Books before cats!” We did a library skills lesson on the online catalog and ways we can use it to search, and the students got their books chosen and checked out.

They then reminded me that I’d said I’d read a book to them, a new one to our library. It is called Ham the Astrochimp, by Richard Hilliard and is about Ham, the chimpanzee who was America’s very first “space pioneer.” The book was a gift from a real “rocket scientist” with NASA, the daughter of one of our teachers.

As we headed toward the bean bags, Makayla asked, “Can Alex listen with us?”

Well, sure, why not! So the kids sat on the bean bags and Alex settled into his bed right with us.

Of course “Books before cats” is much easier to stick to when Alex isn’t right in the middle of things!

“How old is Alex?” asked Brandon.

Soon came the question “Why does Alex have whiskers on the top of his head?” from Makayla.

That question took a while to answer and everyone had to feel said whiskers!

The kids, not being familiar with the beginnings of our space program, were spellbound, often asking, “Did that really happen?”

We all had a good time and I was reminded that it is not just the younger kids who enjoy a story hour. It is also older kids and cats!

SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

Today has been one of mixed emotions here in the Library.

Alex is holding on to 4th place in the Bissell Most Valuable Pet contest, among over 3400 entries. We are excited but know that in the last 24 hours of voting anything can happen. We need as many votes as we can get to stay in the top 5 and make the finals, so if you haven’t voted for him we’d love it if you did. To vote, click here.

On a sad note, our 5th and 6th graders gathered in the library to hear that our sweet little Siamese kitten, SnuggleBunny, has lost her fight with feline leukemia. These two classes had claimed her as their own special library cat, knowing full well that her life would be short.

“SnuggleBunny has died,” I told them, and went on to thank them for the very special thing they chose to do for her.

Only a few short months ago, we talked about SnuggleBunny, whose official name was Sabrina, and made the decision as a group to bring her to school and give her as good a life as Alex and Big Footsie.

“Thank you,” I said, “for putting SnuggleBunny and her feelings ahead of you and yours.” I told them what a wonderful and unselfish and grown-up thing they had done and how they had given her a happy life she would not have had otherwise.

There were tears and sad faces and lots of hugs. “We loved her,” said Makayla, and everyone agreed. Makayla said that she thinks SnuggleBunny and Big Footsie are playing together now and that Big Footsie is the boss!

I told them more than once how proud of them I am, and how much I appreciate what they did.

We all signed a card to Ms. Merry, who was SnuggleBunny’s foster mom in Kansas City, and we thanked her for sending this sweet little one to us.

We talked about how much fun she had had at our Library Cat Christmas party. SnuggleBunny did love a party, so we had a party today in her honor, with popcorn served on kitty napkins.

For me, SnuggleBunny’s time with us seems like a blur. It went by so fast. One of my favorite poets is Sara Teasdale, and one of her poems is staying on my mind.

“I saw a star slide down the sky, blinding the north as it went by;
Too burning and too quick to hold; too lovely to be bought or sold;
Good only to make wishes on and then forever to be gone.”

SnuggleBunny is our little falling star, gone way before we were ready.