Bookish cats around the globe

Photo taken by Simone Schramm Trimm
Shiloh, my in-laws cat loves to sit on the shelf near lots and lots of books. And not a day goes by with out him sitting on reading material.

A while back someone sent me a link to the Library cats around the world website. It's intriguing to know that there's a way that you could find out about library cats near you. Of course that's if the content is up-to-date. According to the library cat's map, content has not been updated since September 2007. The mascot cats could have died, new cats probably adopted unmentioned libraries and so on...

So now I'm really curious to find out if some of the currently living cats are just that...currently living and residing in their respective libraries. For instance there's Kiki who supposedly resides at the Moorpark Library, and Elvis and Michael Jackson who live at the Simi Valley Library. Unfortunately there's no San Fernando Valley cats living on the list but I'm sure they're out there.

According to the website, the map lists information on nearly 600 library cats around the world. And the Weslayan College library website, which so lovingly wrote a farewell tribute to their resident cat of 23 years Squeakers, claims that 697 cats have been recorded worldwide as official library cats. There are 573 on record in the U.S. and 383 have passed away. Thirty-two are permanent cats-in-residence, 22 have been immortalized as statues, five are virtual eCats (whatever that means...tried to wikipedia it...can someone explain that to me?), four are stuffed mascots, and one haunts a reference room as a ghost. And they all can be reached by email.

It reminds me of a mascot cat I got to know and love at an old job in Northridge. She was a beautiful black moggy (British slang for stray cat...and yes! Moggy was her name) who used to roam our wearhouse (the company I worked for sold unique learning materials to teachers and parents) and it was a real treat (and sometimes a stress reliever) when she'd come and greet everyone at their desks. The wearhouse manager decided to adopt her. He'd bring her home on weekends, then bring her back during the week to patrol the wearhouse and keep everyone company. I miss that. We need some kind of mascot at the Daily News! I'd bring my cats in but they certainly would not appreciate it.

So you bet I'll be calling and emailing people to investigate this. And if any of you know of any library cats, bookstore cats and other mascots around the area, let me know or contact Gary Roma of Iron Productions via the contact information on the library cats website. And while I'm at it I may as well ask him when his Puss in Books: Adventures of the Library Cat documentary will be released on DVD. I hear that the filming of this documentary inspired him to create these world-wide library cat statistics.

In the mean time you can enjoy Browers the Library cat perusing the bookshelves of the Pine River Minnesota library (I couldn't find a local cat). Actually I think he's trying to figure out a way down....LOL!