Today at the South Branch is Caturday!, a day designed to celebrate all things feline. There’s just something about books and cats that go well together, and what better place than the library to celebrate that great combination. We’ve talked about cats before here on the blog, but it seemed like, on Caturday! of all days, another post was warranted.
Authors seem to be particularly fond of cats. Perhaps there’s a recognition of mutual temperament there, but authors with cats seem to be particularly well-documented. This Slideshare presentation offers up 10 such examples, including Free For All favorite, Neil Gaiman who has talked about many of his cats on his blog. Mental Floss has also posted an article about 11 writers who loved cats. While many of the writers included in the slideshare overlap with the Mental Floss article, I had to post the latter because the introductory image of Mark Twain holding a kitten melted my heart as the image makes a man with a reputation for being a curmudgeon look a bundle of fluff, cigar and all. While personally, I find many of Dr. Seuss’s iconic characters to look vaguely cat-like (and of course, the Cat in the Hat is most definitely feline) there is some recently discovered artwork of his that features a cat in a more definitive way. Here is an image of his aptly titled “Wisdom of the Orient Cat,” which seems to speak volumes to cat potential.
Today at the South, as part of our Caturday! celebrations, we have two local shelters visiting and talking about cat care, cat facts and funny cat stories: Northeast Animal Shelter and PALS. 
Northeast Animal Shelter, based in Salem, has been helping dogs and cats find their forever homes for 40 years and have placed over 125,000 animals in that time.
PALS is also based in Salem and is exclusively run by volunteers “dedicated to helping homeless cats and kittens find suitable, loving homes.” All are welcome to stop by the South Branch to chat with the shelters’ volunteer representatives to talk about adoption, volunteering or cat care and advice.
Lest you think that we here at the library are all talk, be assured that those aforementioned cat-loving authors are in good company with staff here at the Peabody Library. Just to prove it to you, here are some of the staff’s beloved feline counterparts, some with literary connections of their own:
Zen, Main Library:
Brady, Main Library:
Gemini, Reference Desk:
Salem, West Branch
Elphie, West Branch
Tess, Reference Desk
Charlie, Reference Desk
Oscar Wilde, Circulation Desk
Victor, Archives
Reepicheep, Children’s Room
Vishti, Children’s Room
Lizzie, South Branch
Till next week, dear readers, whether you are a fellow ailurophile (cat lover) or prefer your books without a side of fur (or an entire cat sleeping on the pages), I hope you’ll recognize how much cats have an affect on literature. Whether you choose to celebrate with us here at the South or from afar in your own way, happy Caturday!!