Looking Back on My First Year at the Library

The changes my humans have been making around here has got me thinking about the changes that have happened in my life in the last year.

Last year at this time I was living 'at home'. I'm not sure where that was but Tiff, my first human (who I had been with since I was a kitten) had taken me there when she couldn't take me with her to her new house. The humans 'at home' didn't really like me (and I can say now, the feeling was mutual!) Oh, they feed me but it wasn't the same as living with someone who loved you. Then Tiff thought that maybe someone here at the Library would like to take me home with them and she brought me here. No one had room for me but they said I could live here at the Library. (They had to get special permission to let me do that, so I guess they really wanted me.)

I was so scared those first few days that I hid behind some boxes in the back room and only came out when everyone had gone and the place was dark. Good thing they had put my toilet near where I was hiding! They put my food dish nearby, too. Slowly I realized that there were humans here who liked me and wanted to get to know me better and I started to come out a little. Just as I was beginning to feel at home, these humans played a dirty trick on me. One day they stuffed me in a box and took me outside. When they let me out of the box, I was in a new place. It smelled very clean but with just a strange little odor of cat and DOG! Someone stuck me with something and I fell asleep. When I woke up I wasn't interested in the same smells that I had like before. They put me back in the box and I was back in the Library hiding in the back room before I knew it. I stayed there a couple of days before deciding to trust the humans again. (I had to make them feel bad about putting me in that box, didn't I?)

There were other times I hid behind things. A big, tall man kept coming thru the workroom one morning, taking things from the backroom and putting other things back there. I had never seen him before eventho the other humans seem to know him. No one bothered to introduce us, either, so I went behind the warm box under this desk. It was nice and cozy back there (the wires got in the way a little, but they were soft and I could sit on them.) Finally the man went away and I after awhile I came out. Seems the man was the president of the library's board of trustees and had just come back from spending the winter down south. He's come back a lot but I still stay out of his way. That space under this desk is one of my favorite places but someone cleaned it out and all the toys I had put back there are gone. Just when I start making someplace feel like home, someone has to clean it out. Humans!!

Another time I had to hide coz some big boys brought in a wooden bookshelf. It smelled awful and I thought the smell would never go away! (But it did.) Now that bookshelf is one of my favorite places. Some nice lady gave me a blanket to put up on the top of it where I like to sit. Then Tamika gave me a box and put the blanket in it. I didn't like that so much so one night when I didn't have anything better to do, I shredded the blanket. Mary put some towels in the box after that and that was better than the blanket! Nan brought me a nice soft blanket and now my box is a purrfect bed. I like to lay up there coz I can see out the window into the library and if someone new comes into the room I can just put my head down and no one can see me. (I know that I'm above the humans, and this way they know it ,too.)

A couple of times there were loud noises in here in the middle of the night that scared me. For awhile whenever I walked around my private toilet the same noises that the humans make when they leave at night (and come in in the morning) would start. Then, just as quickly as it started it would stop! Eventually some strange men came into my room and climbed up on the wall over my toilet. (I hid behind some boxes and watched them.) They did something and the noises stopped happening except when it should. That is until the morning when The Man couldn't make the noises stop when he came in. The words he used! Cats like me shouldn't hear those things! The phone rang and rang before things finally got quiet and he let me out of here. He was not happy that morning.

The first time the minature humans came here was scary for me, too. They move so quick! And the noise they made! I think they were singing and beating on things. I couldn't find a good spot to hide that morning. Now, when there isn't a lot of them, I'll come out to see what's happening. I can keep my eye on 2 of them at a time, more than that and I'll run.

I've discovered this year that humans like to climb almost as much as cats do, but they use contraptions and don't jump much. Besides the men who came to make the noises stop, there have been men who climbed into the ceiling. I stayed out of their way, let me tell you. Those things they climb on don't look very stury to me. I sure wouldn't use one. I like jumping from shelf to shelf. Sometimes I've gotten too high and then someone would put a soft chair near me and I'd jump down into it. (I've really got my humans well trained, don't I?)

I wasn't really sorry that I didn't win the Pet of the Year contest that my humans had entered me in. I know they are really proud of me and wanted to show me off, but politics just isn't for me. I don't like to meet new people except on my own terms. At least I made Pet of the Month for September for them. That seemed to please them very much.

Things have been very good for me this year. I have met many new humans, including some very pretty ladies! Everyone I meet says how nice I am. (I never realized humans were so smart! And generous! Humans I don't even know bring me treats and toys!!) I have several special friends among the humans who come here every day. Nan lets me whisper things in her ear and she shares her food with me. She is my favorite human. I think it's because she has several of my distant relatives at home and knows what a cat needs. Tamika is next as a favorite. She lets me explore the rooms she works in, helping her go through the boxes that are in there. (She's the one who put me in that box when I first got here, but I don't hold it against her. Every once in awhile she puts stuff on my neck, too. I don't know why she does it but afterwards she always hugs me and says what a good boy I am.) Nan and Tamika leave some of the doors open so I can go by myself into the big room where it's usually dark and quiet. (There is even a closet in there that I can run into if I have too.) The Man opens the door to my rooms nearly every morning and lets me run around the library. He calls me "Foolish", but I know he likes me. He plays with me and lets me watch him do things with the thing that sucks the dirt off the floor. He even brought a lady to meet me! (We have the same taste in women.) He pretends to get mad at me when I get a little bored overnight and unroll the paper towels. (Mary says I'm being creative when I give the paper towels a lace edging.) Mary gives me treats and is learning to clean my toilet. Even though she always has dog hairs on her, she isn't so bad. When I was in that contest and had to 'meet and greet' people, she would hold me tight and tell me not to be afraid, she wouldn't let anybody hurt me. She lets me sit with her when she's working and she know how to play the water game with me! Deb has dog hairs on her, too, but she seems to like to play tag and chase me around the library and she lets me share a chair with her. Paul doesn't like to share a chair with me even though I know he has another of my relatives living in his house. The other humans always talk to me and make sure I have clean water and enough food. And they even turn on a radio when they're going to leave so I won't feel alone.

Yes, my life has changed a lot in the past year but I'm glad I live in the library.