The Garden kids have arrived!

Now my Garden has a sculpture of children reading in it. . .


. . . and this is how they looked to me from my window in the YA room yesterday. . .


Right now they have been moved and are leaning against a wall in the Garden. My Assistant Boss Karen stopped by to see me this morning (hooray!) and decided they should move for a while because they are a bit tippy. (They were probably fine, but she wanted to hide the fact that she came here to the Library just to see me. She did not want the other Staff to get Jealous.)

My Karen said she has talked about me every single day that she has been away at this Fair-thing, and that people even asked about me when they see her! Tomorrow she is coming home to work at the Library and I am super-excited! I will get Treats again! And I will fling apples and pencils about in celebration!


I cannot remember if I've posted this picture before but my new pictures are stuck in the camera (Upstairs) and my Photographer (Downstairs) is too lazy to get them out for me. So I am posting this one because even if you have seen it already you will surely appreciate how nice and glowy my furs look in the sunshine!

Radiantly yours,

Tober

My Garden

At my Library we have a Secret Garden:


I have infiltrated the Secret Garden and placed a decoy inside.


The Secret Garden is inspired by the 1914 book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Soon it will contain a sculpture of two children reading, as well as a bird, a fox, a frog, and a bunny-rabbit. It has lights in it, and benches, and plants and flowers that were mentioned in the book. People can borrow the Garden if they want to read or eat lunch or have a little gathering (but they have to give it back when they are done).

I like to spy on people when they are in the Garden. This is part of my Library Security Position. The Young Adult Room, in which Britta (my YA Librarian) recently installed a perfect Tober Nook, overlooks the Garden, so I can see what people are up to in there.

Here I am relaxing in my Nook. Thank you, Britta!


By the way, I am a little upset with my Assistant Boss Karen because she ran away from the Library to join the Boone County Fair. I was so lonesome today that I walked all the way to the other end of the building to get some company! I'm thinking Cathie and maybe Bonnie have a slight chance of getting Vacations reinstated. Karen will have to work Sundays when she comes back.

Fair-ly,

Tober

The Most Horrible Thing Ever

Last Wednesday something terrible happened at my Library. (The Wednesday I am referring to was July 15--technically TWO Wednesdays ago. I am just now recovering from the terribleness of that day.)

Two nice-looking Human fellows in blue shirts came in and wandered around the building for a while. They were peeking in closets and looking up at the ceiling a lot. One of them had a big stick with a plastic-looking thingie on the end, and they kept sticking it over these round things with blinky lights that are up on my ceilings. They then would say "Thanks" to whoever let them in that particular room and move on to the next round thing. It turns out they were testing the smoke detectors, which is a Very Important Thing to Do.

I thought they were harmless.

No one told me they were also testing these things called Fire Alarms.

I thought Karen was coming for an afternoon visit whlie I napped by the restrooms. She sat down and started petting me, and I thought it was very Nice that she was so lonely for me. I was thinking about getting up and relocating back in my office chair.

Then Christine came for a visit. I should have known something Bad was going to happen when she showed up. Why was I so popular all of a sudden? When I sit by the restrooms, I usually only get visits when someone needs to visit "the facilities" or get into the storage room.

Then, in mid-petting, the Fire Alarm went off! It was absolutely positively the most Terrible sound in the Whole Wide World! It made my ears want to turn inside-out! (See reenacted shot below.)


I ran as fast as I could to get away from the sound, but it was coming from Everywhere! Lights were flashing, too, and I hunkered down on the ground and ran for the Downstairs. It was noisy and flashing down there, too, and then my Staff started chasing me, so I ran faster!

Fellow Cats, if you have never heard the sound of 14,000 square feets of library alarms warning people to get the heck out, just imagine about a dozen toddler girls sqealing "Kitty!!!!" into your ears. The effect would be similar, I think.

I think I'm still partially deaf from the experience.

Huh?

Tober

PS I am going to request that my Staff put one of those stickers on my Library doors that say "Please Mr. Fireman rescue the 1 cat that lives in this building." We can forget about the fishtank--they are swimming in fire putter-outer.

I do not understand Vacations.

My staff people keep taking these things called Vacations. I do not understand what they are for. Every time one of them has a Vacation coming up, they get all excited and start counting down days, and when the countdown is over they stop showing up to work. Usually, when multiple staff people are on Vacation at the same time, the Food Service around here gets pretty sketchy. (I almost experienced something called brunch for the first time last week. Assistant Boss Karen saved the day and insisted that I get my breakfast--although it didn't happen until 10:00am.)

So why do people have to take Vacations? I have heard many reasons, and none of them make any sense to me.

1. To get away. From what? I am a certified wasp-finder, so there is nothing scary chasing anyone in my Library.

2. To relax. Okay. . . what is more relaxing than cuddling with a warm, soggy, purring, handsome cat?

3. To recharge. I have already learned that library workers run on coffee and chocolate, so why don't we just have more of that?

4. To visit distant lands. I have ridden in a car before, and I don't see why anyone would ever want to do that. Everything they need is right here in Thorntown. . . especially Cat Love.

5. To visit with other people. Why don't they just have the people visit them here? They could introduce us, and I could get even more Tummy Rubbings and Treats.

6. To seek out entertainment. They work in a Library with exciting books and DVDs and internet access and me. They have all the entertainment they could wish for.

In conclusion, I believe that Vacations are absolutely Unnecessary for staff people who are lucky enough to work for a Cat (me) in beautiful Thorntown, Indiana.

As Boss, I hereby abolish Vacations at Thorntown Public Library.

Any leisure time can be spent giving me hugs and rubbing my tummy and fetching my apples from the floor. These are very fun, relaxing, and refreshing activities, and my staff will stay close so I can have my breakfast and supper on time.


In the picture above, I am very happily having my breakfast on time. (Thank you, Becki.)

Working with me is a Vacation,

Tober

Remember me?

Hi blog fans! I have been a Very Very Bad Famous Blogging Library Cat. I think everybody's probably forgotten about me. My July 7 Resolution is to become (once again) a Very Good Famous Blogging Library Cat.

I want you to know that I have been a super big help to the Library Staff here in Thorntown. If you will recall, my Staff found me "playing with" (their words) a wasp several Saturdays ago. They found out it was a wasp and smacked it and killed it because wasps have stingers and they didn't want me to get hurt. (I was glad they did this after my faithful Followers informed me that getting stung really is a pretty Bad Idea.)

Wasps keep getting into my Library, though, and the Staff and customers don't like them one bit. So I help find them. Humans aren't sensitive to the sounds of bug wings, so I tune in and meow and stare in the general direction of the bug that needs swatting. I also twitch my tail. Then my nearest helper kills it! (The bug, not my tail.) Then, if I'm quick, I eat it! This is wonderful--better than those canned treats they give me all the time (although I love, love, love those, too).


Here is a picture of me. I hope its cuteness makes up for the fact that I have not been a good Blogger or Blog-reader. These humans seem to think that I have other More Important things to do (like finding all the wasps and shelving DVDs and warming seats and such).

He of the ever-lengthening job description,

Tober