Book ~ "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" (2008) Vicki Myron

From Amazon ~ One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named Dewey Readmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, and on Myron herself. Through her developing relationship with the feline, Myron recounts the economic and social history of Spencer as well as her own success story—despite an alcoholic husband, living on welfare, and health problems ranging from the difficult birth of her daughter, Jodi, to breast cancer. After her divorce, Myron graduated college (the first in her family) and stumbled into a library job. She quickly rose to become director, realizing early on that this was a job she could love for the rest of her life. Dewey, meanwhile, brings disabled children out of their shells, invites businessmen to pet him with one hand while holding the Wall Street Journal with the other, eats rubber bands and becomes a media darling. The book is not only a tribute to a cat—anthropomorphized to a degree that can strain credulity (Dewey plays hide and seek with Myron, can read her thoughts, is mortified by his hair balls)—it's a love letter to libraries.

I love reading stories about kitties.

Dewey sounds like quite the cat! He ended up living to age 19!

Some complained on Amazon that the story detours a bit too much at times to give a lot of detail about the city of Spencer and Myron's own life. But I think it was to show the impact one kitty can have on a lot of lives.

If you are an animal lover, you'd probably enjoy this story.

Here's the Spencer Library website page for Dewey.