Hooray for Finding Day!

Today is the 3rd (third) Anniversary of my Finding Day! I know most of you call it Gotcha Day--same thing! Gotcha/Finding Day = Forever Home!

I was worried how my Finding Day would pan out after last week's fiasco. Luckily Not-Tober has not returned to my Library. No one has called to claim him, but his foster person will gladly give him a Forever Home if we don't hear anything soon.

So I guess it's okay that he used my Library.

I'm still not over the use of my litter pan, though. That was just rude.

Anyhow, today I have been a safe & sound FOUND cat for Three Whole Years. My AAB Karen knows a good cat when she sees one, and I'm glad she saw me!

On Monday I had my Very Own Special Storytime. My friend Michael read Splat the Cat to me. Splat the Cat is very worried about his first day of school. Of course, he has to go to school so he can learn things (maybe how to write blogs?), and the story tells all about how he coped with his first day.


Michael did an excellent job reading me the story, especially with all the hard words in it. I hope I get to have more Special Storytimes like that!

I commanded my Photographer to take a picture of my Poster Contest submissions. She listened for once!


Once November 2 is here, I will have one of my staff scan them and I'll post them on the blog so everybody can see how nice they all are! Don't forget to submit your entries! The winner will be announced on November 3--my Hire Date here at the Library.

I also got a Gotcha Day Card today!


Who knew they made Gotcha Day Cards? Especially with Handsome Orange Cats on them? Wow! Thanks Laila and Minchie!

Even when they do dumb things (like letting a strange cat Number One and Number Two in my box), I'm lucky to have such a Wonderful Staff and Bored Board here at my Library. Lots of animals don't have it so good. I'm also lucky to have such Great Blogging Friends and Library customers!

Of course, there is a price to pay for all of this Wonderfulness--even on my Finding Day. For some reason, Finding Day means I get chased around with the camera a LOT. Here I am frowning at Photographer. She has this obsession with my ears. She gets all upset when she thinks they are pointed the wrong way in a photo.


My ears are pointed appropriately forward (it makes AAB Photographer feel good when she thinks I give a hoot about her picture-taking), but I am Frowning just to spite her.

For those of you who requested a side-by-side of me and Not-Tober, here you go!


Now that you see us side-by-side, I bet you can see the differences. Not-Tober hasn't quite grown into his ears yet, and he's got a long long tail. I also have more face-white and Magnificent Whiskers.

I think I'm a much more Mature and Dignified cat. But I wish all the best to Not-Tober (as long as he stays out of my Library).

Okay, that's enough words in honor of my Finding Day!

Safe & Sound & Found,

Tober

PS I rehired the Fired staff because AAB Kathy was getting lonely without them.

Staff Meetings.

Mondays are usually my most favorite day of the week. Although Assistant Boss Karen comes to visit me and cuddles me during the day, Sunday is always kind of lonely around here. Monday is exciting, because all of my people are back, and they make a big fuss over me. I get extra treats, I help do set-up in the morning, and extra-special (and much deserved) attention is lavished on me.

Well, this Monday was different. Apparently, there was a Staff Meeting. I did not authorize an 8:30 a.m. Staff Meeting. All of my people showed up to work early, which I thought was fabulous, until I realized that they did not come early to see me. Everyone crowded around a big table on the wood floors (which I do not like to walk on) and had a big talk. I have decided that I don't like Staff Meetings. When the staff members come in to work, they each have an assigned place where they are supposed to be. This makes them easy to find. When they clump together like that, it makes me nervous. It starts my day off wrong. In fact, since this occurred on a Monday, it started my week off wrong.

I tried to remind them that it was Monday, that they were in the wrong places, and that I was in dire need of attention, by standing on the carpet and yelling at them. The only one who cared enough to come to me was Assistant Boss Karen, and she made the mistake of assuming that I wanted to join the Meeting. She scooped me up and carried me to the table, and I promptly ran back to carpeted area and began yelling again.

I think if the Library employees have something very important to talk about, they can use the phone things (with the tasty cords) that sit on their desks. These seem to work reasonably well when they need to talk to people in other buildings, so why not use them for Staff Meetings? In this way, they can be in their assigned places when I need them. I need Karen to stay in her assigned place so that she can easily reach the Treat Drawer when I get the hungries. I need Bonnie to stay in her assigned place because she offers comforting words when one of the Mean Ones is forcing Medicine down my throat. Cathie needs to stay in her assigned place because she is Very Nice and fills my food dish. (She even warms it a bit when it's cold, and this makes her an A+ Person in my book!)

I am not a fan of Staff Meetings, but I later found out that it was a Very Important talk that they were having. On March 9, our Library will be using a new system called Evergreen Indiana. This is the system that helps the staff (and the customers) keep track of all of the books in the Library. Our customers will get new green cards beginning March 9, and there will be all sorts of neat things they can do with their online account. The people at the circulation desks have brochures that explain the changes that will take place when we get the new system. You should stop by the library and get a copy!

My foot is feeling like a normal foot now, but they keep giving me Medicine. I heard Karen and Christine saying that they had to give me ALL of the Medicine in the bottle. I wish I could dump the rest of it down the sink, but I don't have thumbs.

Fridays are now Popcorn Days at the Library. The nice American Legion Post #218 People are letting us use a popcorn popper, and we fire it up around 3:00 on Fridays! We are using the Youth Department Winter Reading Program, "Pop Open a Good Book," as an excuse to have yummy snacks on Friday afternoons.

Here I am sampling:


I love this place!

Tober

How I am Famous

Here is the blog post that I promised to you last week.

I was Googling myself one evening. (I thought it would be an easy way to bring up my blog page, since my page is, in fact, Googlable.) I was shocked when my search results included links to other pages about Tober the Library Cat (me). I clicked the links, and here's what I found.

The first one:


It is very small, but you can see this informative and important blog posting at World Wide Whiskers. If you want to stay on my page--which you probably do--you can also click on the picture to make it bigger.

Here are the highlights.

Dewey isn’t the only library cat anymore. Meet Tober. Unlike Dewey, who was merely the subject of a book, Tober, the library cat of Thorntown, Indiana, has his own blog.

This very wise blogging person chose to include a very handsome shot of me. This happened to be posted on Christmas; I didn't ask to be famous for Christmas, but this does make it easier for me to forgive Santa for not bringing my hamster. Maybe this is what he meant by surprises!

This next blogger mentions one of my better-known (and least-loved) habits:


This is posted on a blog called Men and Cats. Apparently, I am not the only cat who likes to chew on cords. The people who comment on this post seem to think that there are many good ways to keep cats from chewing cords. Lucky for me, the staff at the Library hasn't found one yet!

Now you know how I am becoming Famous.

For those of you who have suffered sleepless nights about the state of my poor hurt foot, let me reassure you that I have been well taken care of. Assistant Assistant Boss Christine noticed that my foot was really stinky, Assistant Assistant Boss Linda noticed that my foot was really puffy, and Assistant Boss Karen called the nice people at the Thorntown Veterinary Clinic. Again. This time I had to ride in the stupid pet box. Hugging with a nice view is preferred, for future reference. The doctor discovered that I had an infected toe, and it was decided that I should take Medicine.

This Medicine is NOT a pill, but it is still not very good. Rather than take the Medicine when I want to, my staff people have decided that I need to take it once a day and first thing in the morning.

When Karen gives me the Medicine, she very kindly provides tasty food and treats, so that I may quickly get the awful taste out of my mouth. Christine didn't know this routine, so after she practically sat on me and forced a syringe in my mouth, I had to run through the Library, wipe my face, hide under Linda's desk (in case Christine wasn't done), and then proceed to my breakfast bowl. Which hadn't been filled yet.

I think Assistant Boss Karen needs to sign *certain people* up for more staff training time.

While my foot was hurting, I spent a lot of time in Karen's office helping her do a Very Very Important Library Report. The staff thinks that the report bored me, but NO! What happened was this: I was such a Very Big Help and such a Hard Worker that I passed out from exhaustion, right there on the paperwork. Just ask Karen.


My foot is feeling better though, and I ran around a lot today. I also received a Present from Helen. Helen very kindly crafted one of my previously chewed cords into a toy. Then she decided it was too big, so she needed to do something a little different with it. She took it home with her so that she could fix it for me! Now that's dedication! I think Helen should be Assistant Assistant Boss of the Month!

Now I must go back to cleaning my foot and plotting my evasive maneuvers for tomorrow morning.

Wish me luck!

Tober

Very exciting times!

First I must say Thank goodness my Assistant Boss is back! I am very, very happy that she is back where she belongs--with me. This library bunch is pretty difficult to manage, but I did my best. Let me tell you--it is very hard to manage people who can scoop you up and lock you in an office when they think you're being too bossy. This happened quite a bit. I told AB Karen, and I trust her to take care of this insubordinate behavior.

Special accolades go to Assistant Assistant Boss Friend Cathie, who went above and beyond the call of duty when I was missing Karen. Cathie brought in a mousie for me to chase. It was not a real mouse (which I would have considered a belated Christmas gift), but it moved around on the floor so I could chase it. It was as dumb as a real mouse, because it ran into walls willy-nilly, and got stuck under the rocking chair for a bit.
Here is a picture of me with the mouse:


I posed very nicely for this picture. This next picture, I did not pose for. I must say I am getting tired of folks creeping around with cameras, taking embarrassing photos.


It is very unnerving to look up from cleaning your nether parts to see someone turning on a camera. So far I have managed to avoid being photographed in that unfortunate position, but these people are very sneaky.

Now that my Assistant Boss is back, I can relax a bit. She is much better at Bossing, because the other Library Staff do NOT pick her up and lock her in her office when she begins roaming the building. I spent the day helping her catch up on paperwork. I also ate a lot of food and napped a bunch.

I also must tell you that today is a Big Snow Day in Boone County. Everything outside is white and cold, and I am very glad that I am a Library Cat. I am also glad that my library is open today, so that I can have plenty of food and petting.

Coming up I have a very important blog. I am famous. Look for it in a few days!

Stay warm,

Tober