July Rescued Spotlight: Browser the Library Cat

Over the last several months we've been telling you about Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes, an anthology of rescue cat stories compiled by Janiss Garza, who writes the Sparkle Cat blog. Each author featured in the book has nominated a cat rescue and was assigned a month to promote the book, with a third of the profits from that month going to their rescue. We wanted to help spread the word about this very important book by interviewing each of the featured cats in our "Truffles Interviews" series.

Rest assured, these interviews will continue. Truffles was very proud to be a rescue kitty and was passionate about helping other cats find their forever homes too. In her memory I will be continuing the interviews, at least until her successor comes along. Just the other day I was re-reading the interview she did with her friend Nissy of Nerissa's Life. Whoever would have guessed that in just a few short months they would both be gone...

Today I present Truffles' final Rescued interview with July's spotlight, Browser the Library Cat.

Truffles: Welcome, Browser! Thank you so much for chatting with me today. Could you start by introducing yourself and telling us what made your story such a good fit for the Rescued anthology?

Browser: I am a library cat. Historically cats were kept in libraries to keep rodents out of the books. My life is considerably easier than that. That my story was a good fit is obvious. I was dumped in town as a kitten. My library friends rescued me.

I have to tell you, I think it is SO cool that you get to live in a library!!! (Although Mommy has so many books around our house that sometimes I think I do too!!!) What are some of the fun things that you get to do there? 

Living in a library has more benefits for a feline than I can possibly list. Let me start by describing my attention quotient. Every day people friends come into the library and seek me for a good scratch. Then there is “story time”. Small people sit around on the floor and pet me. Someone reads a book to us. It is very soothing. We have several computers in our library. With the computers come very comfy chairs where I enjoy many naps. I have plenty of shelves to climb on – mazes of them, and chess boards where though my ability to play chess is rather limited, I make toys of the pieces. People bring me stuff. Loads of stuff. Toys, food, treats. It’s a wonderful place to live.

How did you come to wear the very special collar that documents your adventures? 

I truly enjoy my perambulations, but sometimes Muriel, head librarian, wants to know where in the world I am. It’s a win/win. I don’t get lost and Muriel doesn’t stress about my location.

You're a blogging kitty and newspaper columnist too! Where can we read your mewsings? 

My blog address is: http://library-cat.blogspot.com/ Also, you can read some of my ruminations in the quarterly “Our Neck of the Woods” under Chit Chat with the Library Cat. That would be me. I also publish relatively frequently in the Pine River Journal, a weekly news paper for our area, where I chronicle events in my life and the lives of those at my home, Pine River Public Library. Yes, I keep busy.

The rescue you've chosen to receive your proceeds from the book this month is Paws and Claws Animal Shelter in Hackensack, MN. What can you tell us about the work they do for homeless animals? 

Paws and Claws is small town facility in the making. They are partnered with an animal doctor who promotes spraying and neutering with a sliding scale so this can be affordable to anybody. Strays and farm cats are treated specially. This is wonderful because it will help assure there are fewer youngsters like I was, roaming around with no food and no home. Paws and Claws has a presence on Facebook. Visit them. They post some pretty fun stuff! At present Paws and Claws is a dream in the making. Funds, if you google them or check facebook, will go toward some pretty fancy digs. (Yes, I’m bi-lingual)

What do you hope people take away from your story? 

The answer to this question is simple. There is always hope. Sad beginnings do not necessarily mean a sad life.

* Photos used with permission from Browser's humans.