Write letters showing your support for Browser

Dear Friends and Readers,

Because I love visiting with you so much and I know that you love visiting with me as well, would you please write a few quick notes to the newspaper expressing your fondness for moi. (That would be French for “me”.)

I could go on and on in French, but I’d have to study a little first and I wanted to invite your support post haste. (That would be Latin…)Being multi-lingual can be such a trial… Plain old American English would be just dandy in your notes to the paper and to Pine River City Council.

I, much like Dewey, was rescued from certain demise from the streets of Pine River and lovingly raised first in our old library building which is now a quilt shop and coffee house, then in our elegant new building that needs a new roof. I care not at all about the roof. Muriel seems to, so I try to support her in any way I can, having been fed by her for many years.

Muriel tells me there are some who visit the library exclusively to visit with me. No other reason necessary. I doubt this not at all. I am, after all, a fine fellow. Here are some anecdotes about library cats that may inspire your writings…

This is how Spenser, Iowa (population 11,317) responded to an errant kitten found in the book drop of their public library:
“Shortly after the kitten’s rescue, city officials approved the library’s cat-in-residence and a photo of the city’s “new employee” sitting on the card catalog appeared in The Daily Reporter in Spencer. Residents were invited to help name the kitty and 394 cast ballots.” That would be the famous Dewey. www.americanprofile.com

According to findings on www.ironfrog.com dated September 21, 2007, worldwide there are 744 known library cats, 608 of them in the United States. (I certainly hope they counted me!) I thought I was rarer than that, but apparently not. Some of these are former residents, but the current figures for that same year still list 214 as current in the United States. That would be 4.28 per state. I doubt any of these felines are split, so obviously some states have more than others.

Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia (est. 1836) features their library cat on their website (www.wesleyancollege.edu):

“The Wesleyan community mourns the loss of Squeakers, the Willet Memorial Library Cat-in-residence, who passed away on Saturday, April 12, 2008. If you've visited our library at any time between 1985 and 2008, no doubt you met her personally.”

Library cats are historically relevant. ” Did you know that library cats date back to the days when Monks kept cats in their libraries to save the books from being eaten by rats?” (www.alibrarycat.com) There are no rats in the Pine River Public Library. I have made sure of that.

Please help me tell the world (or at least the immediate vicinity) that I am a steadfast member of the community. Write letters. Tell a friend. Come give me a pat and a word of encouragement.

Sincerely, as always,

Browser, the library cat

Printed in the Pine River Journal 16th April 2009