Tag Archives: animal rescue

In which Owen Meany, Staff Kitten, Introduces Himself

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Hi! I’m Owen Meany, staff kitten here at Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Books and Internet Cafe. This is my human mum’s blog, but she was very tired today and said I could do it, if I promised to pay close attention to my spelling. (We have been working hard on foniks this week.)

My job here at the bookstore is to make the customers feel happy. I let them pick me up and rub my tummy and nuzzle me with their faces. I don’t mind; most of the people who shop here smell nice–like meat, or candy.

There are a lot of kittens here, more than I have paws, so I don’t know how many that is. They are all looking for homes. I came here with a group of kittens looking for a home, too, but I just kept quiet and worked really hard at learning to use the box and keeping my fur clean and bright-white. I also learned a nice way of meowing very quietly that Mum says is endearing. So I got to stay.

Mostly all the kittens go away again, to a place where they get tutored or played, Mama says, and then they go to live with someone who wants to give them a nice home. All the kittens get named after famous books or famous characters. There’s been a Bronte series, and a Harry Potter series, and a Louis Gibbons series, and a lot of others. The kittens right now are “Shades of Grey,” because they’re all grey, I guess.

We have a lot of bookshelves here, which is fun because if I’m careful I can squeeze over the tops of the books between the shelves. It’s like a secret tunnel system through the shop. I run through the tunnels and jump out into customers’ laps when they’re sitting down looking at the books. Once I did this and a lady screamed so loud Mama came running. The lady was not pleased. I think it had something to do with the sign above her head: “P-A-R-A-N-O-R-M-A-L R-O-M-A-N-C-E-S.” Mama says I will get tutored soon, so not to worry about what R-O-M-A-N-C-E-S spells.

I like it here at the bookshop; every day I make the rounds to be sure everything is tidy. If there are bits of fluff or fur on the floor I bat them away. I also keep the shop dogs in line; someone has to! And then when we open I run around the customers and make them happy. It’s a very good life, being a bookstore staff kitten. I hope my friends back at the shelter get a good life like this one!

Eight Needleworkers, Seven Kittens, Two Camera Crews and a Bookstore in a Pear Tree

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I really don’t know how we get ourselves into these situations. Last night a film crew came to the bookstore to film some promotional video about our shop and my book. They chose Tuesday evening because we have a weekly stitch-n-bitch in which the shop fills with lively, cheerful babes wielding long needles. VERY photogenic.

But the day before, we got a call from the animal rescue we work with: a family of shelters kitties’ number was up. Sure, of course, bring them over. Then St. Martin’s Press (my publisher) called: they needed a head shot of Jack and me together, by 11 pm. We called our friend Elissa, a pro photographer who promised to run by after work and shoot us. (You can see her massive body of work on Facebook: search for elp6n.)

That’s how two camera crews, eight Needleworking Babes, and seven identical grey fluffballs landed in our shop at more or less the same moment last night. It got a little crazy.  The kittens ran for yarn bundles and cubbyholes, mewing too loudly to leave out during the camera work. The camera crew busily set up lights larger than some of our shelves, as needleworkers ducked under and around them. Elissa had Jack and I backed against a shelf and was bracketing away. The women made boisterous jokes as they pulled out their yarn and eyed the huge camera–and the hunky cameraman. I glanced up from Elissa’s blinding flash at one point to see Tyler the Cameraman traversing the bookstore on his knees, arms extended to shepherd the septuplets into the mystery room. As he corralled errant kittens, Tyler said with a radiant smile, “This is so cool!”

The women, watching his butt wiggle across the floor, grinned too.

That’s when the door opened and a professor friend walked in, saying to someone behind him, “And you’ll love our town bookstore; it’s such a calm, elegant place.” Tyler’s backside was to her, and a kitten had just skittered past him–to be scooped up by a needlework babe, glass of wine in one hand, yarn in the other. The kitten promptly attacked the wineglass as Elissa’s camera did a rapid series of blue strobe lights in the newcomer’s face.

Witold, an academic friend featured in my book, often introduces the new professors in town to our shop as part of the community tour. He hadn’t called ahead. This was a miscalculation.

“Melanie” the new Spanish Professor watched the chaos with one raised eyebrow and a smile spread across her face like a shield. We broke from kitten-wrangling and photo ops to say hello and offer her a chair.

She waved a hand in negation. “No no, I can’t stay long, and I can see that you’re busy.”

I think her voice had an edge of panic to it.

So we got the kittens fed and enclosed and the film finished and the photos snapped and had a good time with the needleworkers, laughing and flirting and cutting up for the video. Everyone went home about 9:30. (We know how to party, but we’re old.)

And Witold sent me a text message: I asked Melanie her impression of the bookstore, and she said, “Surreal.”

Welcome aboard, Mel. Would you like a book, or a kitten?

Don’t forget to enter Caption Contest IV for a chance to win a free copy of “The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap.” Check the July 29 blog for the photo and current entries.