Friday, May 27, 2011

A Special Visitor

Oh oh oh we have a special visitor at Thorntown Public Library! Browser the Library Cat is here with us and is exploring my Library! Browser is from the Pine River Public Library in Pine River, Minnesota.

He has been a Library Cat even longer than I have! Browser moved into his library in 2002 when he was only nine months old, and he has been there ever since. This summer he is trying to visit as many libraries around the World as he can. Since the summer reading program is "One World, Many Stories," his library people back home are having the children keep track of where he goes. They have a map at the library to track his progress.

Here we are together:


Don't we make quite the team? I'm thinking of sending the rest of the staff home for the weekend. I'm sure one Library Cat per floor can handle things around here!

Stop by Browser's blog and leave lots of nice comments for his young readers--I'm sure they'll love to hear the friendly meows from the cat community!

The Host with the Most,

Tober

PS - My Library has a very exciting new Blog! If you (or your humans) are interested in Young Adult literature, stop by the TPL Teens Blog. It's just a newborn blog right now, but there is much more on the way!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Very Important Stuff

For every two crummy employees, at least I get one good one. (See last post for recent Firements.)

AAB Ritchie, despite being a Lergic Allergic, is turning out to be a pretty good Assistant.

In the mornings he is the Very First person to come to the Library, which means he has very Important responsibilities. . . like giving me treats.

(I think he learned much of this when he was promoted to Assistant Boss for a week back in January.)

Last week I intercepted an inter-office email of Great Importance:


Please note that my name is in ALL CAPS while the rest of the email is in silly little baby lowercase letters. I'm sure that this is to draw attention to the importance of the subject (ME) so that AB Karen doesn't accidentally delete the email. (She gets lots of emails, mostly about Acai berries and Rolex watches and other things which I probably shouldn't mention. Occasionally some library business makes it through, too.)

It is good to know that my AABs worry about my happiness and comfort. Just for that, I'm going to leave extra furs on AAB Ritchie's computer monitor. I'm sure he'll be pleasantly surprised.

Treat-ed well,

Boss Tober

PS - A picture of me looking very Official:

Thursday, May 19, 2011

An Oversight

Last night I sent two of my staff people to give a presentation for the Western Boone Education Foundation annual meeting. Judi Hendrix called the library and wanted someone to speak at the meeting. (I'm assuming that she wanted ME Most of All, but I do not leave the Library.) AB Karen is Away "working" and so she asked AABs Christine and Britta to go and represent the Library.

From what I understand, they presented a book talk (meaning they yammered on and on for about 30 minutes about--you guessed it--books). Which is great! I love books, and reading is fun and important, especially if you're a Cat looking for Attentions (see my previous post).

But.

They talked and talked and talked, and mentioned all sorts of stuff about books, and audiobooks, and MP3 CDs, and OverDrive, and mysteries and Westerns and Christian fiction and suspense and adventure and magazines and nonfiction books and young adult books and Alice in Wonderland.

But.

They forgot something.

After they were All Done, one of the nice & attentive audience members came up and said "I can't believe you didn't mention Tober."

SO FIRED. This is the Most Fired I have ever Fired anyone.


I am so Disappointed in my AABs. AAB Christine spends way too much of my time harassing me with a camera and turning me upside-down to FORGET me, and AAB Britta is my Catnip-getter-outer and gives great tummy rubs.

Karen is going to be really Sad that these two got Fired, but really, who can blame me? When you're Bossed by a World- and Internet-Famous Cat, you shouldn't really be forgetting him. Especially when the mention of said Cat would bring interestingness, humor, and Class to the presentation.

Watching my Staff get Smaller & Smaller,

Tober

Friday, May 13, 2011

Book Sale! Take 2

So, yesterday I posted about our Big Ginormous Book Sale at the Library. Apparently Blogger wasn't impressed, because it coughed it right up. So now my Book Sale post is gone Forever. I have asked AAB Christine to be helpful for a change and help me repost it.

She is only complying because she doesn't want to re-pack all of the Book Sale books on May 20th. (Something about having tiny, weak twig-arms that have a hard time hoisting anything heavier than a cat. Or a coffee cup.)

Here's all of what we've got For Sale:


We have James Patterson books and Nora Roberts books and books with Fabio on the cover. We have Disney VHS movies. We have books for kids of all sizes. We have puzzles and other miscellaneous. (We had to keep the "miscellaneous" stuff away from Ritchie so he doesn't try to stuff it in a drawer and label it.) We have paperbacks and hardcovers and books in large print and also magazines. These things are all available for the low, low price of a Donation!

AB Karen requested that I visit for a Special Photo Shoot. This is kind of like how they have a super-famous author come to do a luncheon--AB Karen wanted me to draw people in. That's what I do. It's one of my many duties as Boss Cat.

Before any Photo Shoot, though, I need a quick bath to freshen up. One must look one's best for the whole wide Internets.




Once I was all Handsomed up (which took hardly any time), I received some instructions from AB Karen:


See how Karen is talking and I am only kind of paying attention? That's pretty much how things work between us. Unless she mentions treats or tummy rubs or Catnip.

Plus, I already understand how to promote a love of reading! I love reading! Reading is an activity that can guarantee Attention for us cats. It's simple: When you see a human reading a book, go sit on the page that they are most interested in. (You can tell by the staring they do. Sometimes they even point at the page with their fingers.) When you sit on the reading page, they will stop what they're doing and exclaim that you are Handsome (or Beautiful) and Clever, and then they will pet you. And give treats.

For the Photo Shoot I decided to promote the Fiction Section:


See how I love Books?

If you love VHS movies and magazines and books with Fabio on the cover, be sure to stop by the TPL Book Sale. It will go on until May 20th, and is open during our usual business hours. (That means Monday & Friday 9-6, Tuesday through Thursday 9-8, and Saturday 10-4. If you come on a Sunday I can only gaze at you through the windows.)

This was my final move during the Book Sale Photo Shoot:


If I still had front toenails (which I don't, thanks to the Person Before Karen), that would have really gotten my staff motivated!

Please please please don't delete my post Blogger,

Tober

Thursday, May 5, 2011

14 Days Later

It has been fourteen (14) days (that's TWO WHOLE WEEKS) since my last post! We have been busy busy bees around here. In recognition of our Busyness, I will blog about 14 things that have happened here in the last 14 days:

Thing 1: Mr. Mike Spear refinished two of the wood desks. One of them is not too old, but needed to be prettied up a bit, but the other desk is positively ancient--nearly 100 years old! In cat years, that's. . . that's. . . really old. Ancient!

So to fix up the old old desk, the staff had to uncover it and move all of their junk very important work things to book carts and other places. So it looked like this:


Yes, it looks like a crime scene.

Thing 2: Refinishing the old old desk (and the new one) made it Stink to High Heaven. This was a Stink to End All Stinks. Because of the Stink, the staff opened a few windows. I got to smell the Outside while safely Inside!


This was a wonderful thing, since I only get to smell the Outside when (a) a People-Counter mistakenly puts me Out twice or (b) I'm being carried to the V-E-T.

Thing 3: AAB Ritchie labeled the tool/"miscellaneous" drawers in the Storage Room.


See all those little stickers? Those are the labels. What you can't see is that of the 23 labels, 11 of them say "& MISC." What is Miscellaneous? No one knows. But if we ever need any, we know right where to look!

Thing 4: AAB Photographer took a picture of me with huge paws.


Thing 5: The desk got done Stinking, and now we have to be all careful about eating Treats off of it. I'm forced to use a plate:


Also, if you want to make AAB Becki crazy, leave a coffee cup on the corner of the desk. It will drive her nuts!

Thing 6: The staff made Fun of AAB Ritchie for his labeling job by labeling his desk for him one evening.


You probably can't see, but each sticker says something-or-other & MISC. (!) on it.

Thing 7: Mark Twain came to visit the Library! Dave Ehlert, an impressionist who does shows in Branson, MO, performed and 90-minute show about Mark Twain and his interesting life. I hear it was big Fun, although I was NOT invited to show and spent the night feeling quite Neglected.


Thing 8: I am such an Important Library Boss that even the contractors who do work at the Library ask after my well-being. John from Precision Control Systems very thoughtfully asked how I was when he last visited. Knowing that I am happy and well-fed helps him to get a good night's sleep.

Thing 9: (At this point I'm realizing maybe it wasn't that exciting around here over the last two weeks.) I have learned that the quickest way to motivate my Staff is to approach the Automatic Doors when they are wide Open. This makes them yell "Tober!" and "NO!" and then they lecture me and pet me and give me treats. I have been told Never Never Ever do I go Outside. But since they give me treats when I twitch in the general direction of an open door, I think I'll keep up the ruse.

Thing 10: Ooooh, we've had rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, a sunshine, rain, rain, and rain here. And Thunderboomers. Here's how I look during Thunderboomers (which are Terrifying despite my brave Mancatliness):


I sit on the landing on the stairs during storms, so that I can be almost Upstairs and almost Downstairs at the same time. That way I'm close to all of my staff at the same time.

Thing 11: AAB Photographer took a picture of me being Annoyed.


Thing 12: I was encouraged to participate in an Apple Trick photo shoot. The only reason I agreed to this is because I think it's funny watching my Photographer crawl around on the floor to take pictures of me.


Thing 13: I was accosted by a wooden Duckie.


AB Karen thought that the Duckie and I would be friends. (She was wrong.) But I was entertained as I got to watch first Karen, then AABs Christine and Britta, take turns pushing a flapping, waddling wooden Duck across the office while getting weird looks from Library customers.

Thing 14: In lieu of a 14 Thing, I'm going to cross my paws and hit the Publish Post button and hope that all of my Handsome photos and evidence of Busyness don't blow up the Blogger site.

Hoping for (slightly) less Busy times ahead,

But realizing that I'm not going to get my wish,

Tober, Busy Boss of TPL