Critters!

Firstly, I want you to know that I have once again survived Festival of the Turning Leaves/Book Sale/Carpet Cleaning/Mess Week!  The weekend carpet cleaning team was very nice and did an excellent job, and everything was great until my staff came in on Monday all pooped and crabby.  But more about that in another post.

I promised to tell you about some non-human intruders in my last post!

The first intruder was a Turtle who was rescued by a concerned library patron.  This Turtle was crossing North Market Street in Thorntown, which is quite a chore (and dangerous) if you happen to be smallish.  Here's a picture of North Market St.  (I sent AAB Photographer out to get a picture and made her take it kind of low so you could get a Turtle's-eye View of the crossing.)

Look both ways!

So our concerned library patron brought Mr. Turtle in so my staff could admire his cuteness, then deposited him in front of the library, since that's where he seemed to be heading. 

And he decided that a library flowerbed was a pretty good place to be, until AAB Photographer started bugging him.  Lucky for him he's a Turtle, and can do this:

My next post will feature a photo of paint drying.

Our other intruder came later that day, and she was something special!  Now, normally I am the only animal allowed in the library, except for the occasional reindeer, Not-Tober cat, turtle, baby eyes-not-yet-opened raccoon, fennec fox, bullfrog, owl. . . um.  Huh.  Well, really I am usually the only animal.

Anyhow, we were visited by a seven-month old Woofie named Minuet who is an ICAN dog in training.  ICAN stands for Indiana Canine Assistant Network.  When Minuet grows up, she is going to be a working dog and help people.  This is from the ICAN site:  "ICAN trains dogs in a variety of skills that assist children, adolescents, and adults who have physical and/or developmental conditions such as autism, diabetes or mobility-related disabilities."

Isn't that awesome!?!?!  I'm so glad Minuet got to visit.  She was very well-behaved (for a seven-month-old Woofie), especially with all of the staff admiring her and (barely) resisting their urges to pet her. 

Okay--a blog post wouldn't be complete without a photo of Yours Truly.  Here is a photo of me Supervising the Monday-morning "put the library back together" ritual:

Award-Winning Floatiest Float Pictures coming in the next post!!

Preparing for another exciting Bored Meeting,

Tober

Good Grief!

I have not posted one single blog post in the whole month of September!  Wow.  AAB Blog-Not-Helper would be Fired, but she's been crying all week because it's Festival of the Turning Leaves/Book Sale/Carpet Cleaning/Mess Week!  So I kind of feel sorry for her, but not really.

My Library is getting ready to be One Big Mess.  This year's Festival of the Turning Leaves theme is "Superheroes."  My library ladies panicked when I told them that they all had to dress up in spandex and tall boots and capes, so I decided that they could be Literary Heroes instead.  I will be sure that there are plenty of pictures!

Last week we had a gas leak at the Library, and I had to be evacuated!  Kitties, I was sure that I was going to the V-E-T!  I was so mad!  AAB Britta grabbed me and took me to her car, and we sat together until we could go back inside again.  I DO NOT like leaving my Library.  I am an Inside Only Do Not Remove From This Building Cat!

Okay, now for all of the exciting pictures AAB Photographer took during September:

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

Yep.  She's ready for the AAB Ritchie withholding-of-the-cake treatment.  Let me tell you a little secret:  AAB Blog-Not-Helper and AAB Lazy Photographer are the SAME person.  Pretty sad, huh?

She has taken a few pictures, but mostly in the last week she realized what a lazy bum she's been this month. 

I was even playing hard-to-get, to punish her for her rottenness:

See me?  I thought it was a good hiding place until everybody started taking pictures.  The paparazzi are ridiculous around here!

Yesterday we had the first ever LEGO Club at the library--remember how AAB Kathy told the Library Bored all about it??  Well, 16 children and 10 grown-ups came to the program and built things with LEGOs!  Here are a few action shots:

Notice that I am nowhere near all that--there are way too many people in that space for me!  But I am super-happy that everyone had fun building!

Last night as AAB Sometimes-Photographer prepared to scamper out the door, she noticed that I was taking over a desk.  If everyperson leaves, SOMECAT has to watch the desk, right?

May I help you?

So I watch for Intruders.

Speaking of Intruders, the library had two (2!) non-human Intruders today! 

I will do my Very Very Best (but not promise, because AAB Blog-Not-Helper may make a liar of me) to tell you all about it tomorrow.

Purrs, headbutts, I-missed-yous,

Tober

FYI  This is what happens when you say "I want my picture taken!!!" and then change your mind:

Rotten Ritchie

I'm having trouble with one of my employees.  Maybe you can offer some advice as to how I should discipline him.

AAB Ritchie, who is the Library Custodian, seems to be under the (false) impression that cats shouldn't sit in chairs.  Apparently he thinks that if the cat (that's me) never sits in chairs, he will never have to clean cat furs off of them.  So when he sees me in a chair, he shakes the chair until I leave it.

Kitties, I know!  I know this is horrifying.  Hopefully your people have smelling salts (or at least canned tuna) nearby.  I held a staff meeting to determine how best to deal with this insubordination.

AB Karen suggested we discipline him by withholding cake.  In case you've never read my blog before, cake is a big deal around here.  We like to have cake of some sort to celebrate days ending in Y.  Ritchie *loves* cake.

Ritchie's next tattoo

First AAB Becki hid the cake.  This caused some distress when other staff ladies couldn't find the cake for a 4pm snack, but riots were avoided when the cake was discovered after a tortuous 90-second search.

After the cake was hidden, AAB Britta made Ritchie a special computer screen:

Imagine how terrifying this would be at 6:00 am!

Ritchie thought it was funny. 

 

So I arranged for a special "treat" for him.

 

100% Genuine Tober Furs

Do any of you have ideas on how to properly train a human?  He's a guy-human, which makes him a little harder to train, but still. . . You have no idea how awful it is to be awoken from a great nap by the whole world shaking.  This has to stop!

 

Thank goodness we have a three-day weekend coming. I will have an extra day (without AAB Rotten Ritchie) to nap uninterrupted, and maybe I'll think of a good way to discipline him.

 

Until then, I remain ready for battle.

 

Go ahead.  Make my day.

Wishing everyone lots of naps in chairs,

 

Tober



Mystery Solved

 In case you didn't know why they are called Library Bored Meetings:

One of these things is not like the other.

Still don't see it?  Let me help:

Yep.  Bored.

AAB Kathy looks super-happy in the top picture because (a) she only had to spend 10 minutes at the meeting and (b) she was sharing the news that the Thorntown Kiwanis Club decided to donate moneys to help the youth department start a new once-a-month Lego Club!

Thanks Kiwanis!

Considering instituting Library Awesome Meetings,

Tober

 

Being Rotten

AAB Britta ate some Starburst candies today and left the wrappers in her trashcan.

I LOVE Posty-notes, gum wrappers, library receipts, and sticker papers.  Well, guess what?  Starburst wrappers are a lot like sticker papers!!!

To get to the tasty wrappers, I had to be sneaky.  First I knocked over the trashcan.  Then I took a surreptitious (that's Fancy-Pants for "stealthy") glance around the office to be sure I couldn't be spotted. 

Then I did some investigating to see what treasures the trashcan might hold.

Ooooh, a wrapper!  Smells like orange flavor!

Then I paused to let that one digest a little.

Then I fished out another wrapper!  I'm so happy AAB Britta likes Starbursts!

That one would have been tasty, too, but AAB Party Pooper took it away from me.  She said ONE candy wrapper paper is enough for one day, and that my love of candy wrappers (and other papers) will make me urp.  But I still managed to make a mess. 

The aftermath:

Do you want to know a secret?  AAB Party Pooper might think she's all strict and stuff, but guess what she did with the other tasty Starburst wrapper. . . Guess!

She threw it in her little trashcan.  Hee hee!

*nom nom nom*

Tober