Happy November 3 to Me!

As of today I have been living at the Library for One Whole Year. As of tomorrow I will have been blogging for One Whole Year.

This time of year is really getting to be a bit too exciting for me!


I also need to tell you about Halloween. Apparently my AB Karen thought it was a Good Idea to lock me up on Halloween so I couldn't visit the Downstairs while Library Staff handed out candy and cookies. (After hearing about the terrible awful horrible things lurking about on Halloween, I decided that it was a Good Idea, too.)

Anyway, I have discovered this Wonderful thing called leftover Halloween candy. There is a Monster dish full of leftover Halloween candy on the Adult Circulation Desk. (To see the Monster dish, look at the photos on my last few posts. He's blue with a big mouth!)

Leftover Halloween candy is crinkly and shiny and smells wonderful and absolutely zips across the carpet when I bat it around! It has nice little paper-y and plastic-y places for me to put my teeth, and I am currently training my staff to throw pieces across the library for me to chase.

There is also a seemingly endless supply of this stuff. Unfortunately, my AB and AABs have decided that the leftover Halloween candy should be locked up every night before they leave the building.

Here I am with a cinnamon disk:


Tootsie Rolls are also lots of fun! And Jolly Ranchers!

One-Whole-Year Cat-in-Residence of the Thorntown Public Library,

Tober

An apple a day. . .

I have recovered from Monday. Assistant Boss Karen did make an attempt to put a Collar on my neck on Tuesday morning, but I quickly let her know that it was a Bad Idea. Several treats later, I decided that she was forgiven, and we are all getting along just fine now. The Collar stays out of my sight, in a drawer--where it belongs.

The training of the Library Staff is coming along quite well. I've learned that I can entertain myself for hours watching them pick Apples up off of the floor. Actually, they are SO well-trained that I only need one Apple for almost an entire day of amusement.

I discovered this talent yesterday, when Karen fetched an apple from lunch and brought it to my desk. She placed it on the edge of the desk, and I carefully picked it up in my teeth and dropped it on the floor for her. She got all excited and picked it up. She seemed to enjoy the activity the first time, so I did it again.

Let me tell you--once these Humans get excited about something, they like to do it over and over and over again! Karen even set up an empty basket to catch the Apple, I think because she was tired of looking for it underneath things. After a while, I tired her out, and she washed and ate the Apple to give her energy.

Today she brought another Apple upstairs to play with. This one was very small, but it had a nice big stem for grabbing and dropping.

Here I am with Karen and her little Apple:


Karen wanted to photograph my Very Good Job of picking the Apple up and dropping it. Here is an Action Shot. Notice the little shadow under the Apple:


Here I am licking the Apple:


Here I am putting my teeth into it. It feels nice, like a Cord:


Here I am picking up the Apple by its nice sturdy stem:


Here I am about to drop the Apple. Notice also my technique of sitting on Karen's papers throughout this Training Session. This prevents Karen from becoming distracted by Other Unimportant Things.


Here is how it Ends:


I must say that I am Very Satisfied with the progress of the Staff in this latest Training. Several of them have visited to participate, and many have become proficient Fetchers. If they take too long to retrieve the Apple, I yell at them, and they quickly comply with my Wishes.

I used this Apple for several Training Sessions, and it was quite battered by the end of the day.

The Library Staff is doing so well that customers are taking note. Pastor Jim Allen watched me train Karen for a while, even though he is Allergic to cats. He seemed impressed by Karen's progress, as well as my excellent Apple-dropping skills. I hope they find a Cure for his Feline Allergy so he can visit me more.

Lovin' the Library Life,

Tober

Teens are fun to watch!

First of all, I must say that I am a very lucky and happy cat to be living in a climate-controlled building. My coworkers have been coming in and peeling off big coats in the mornings, so it must be cold out.

Today was a very busy day! I spent the morning napping, bathing, and gathering my thoughts, since I must maintain my attractive appearance and friendly attitude for my PR position. The office was very quiet today, except for one bothersome coworker who kept coughing all the time (I think she has a hairball). The others were very nice and stopped to pet me whenever they passed by. As they should.

But this afternoon was crazy! All of the teens showed up at 4:30 for this thing they do. They call it Teen Scribblers, and they get together and write about different stuff on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays each month. I was a little freaked out at first; I was napping in one of my favorite chairs when I looked up and saw ten people peering back at me through the window. It turns out that I was the topic of the writing project for this week! Can you believe it?

They were supposed to write about what they think I do at night when all of the human employees have gone home. I've heard some of the ideas they had. . . they seem to think that I do very bad things, like knock things off desks and eat paper! Well, they may be right, and they may be wrong. I'll never tell.

I have to admit, this Teen Scribblers thing looked like a lot of fun. It's open to teens 13 and older, and the writing topics change every week. Sometimes they can even freewrite about whatever they want. The next meeting is Tuesday, November 25, so some more teens should come and write, because it is very interesting for me to watch through the window!

Tober