Dewey the Library Cat, by Md Nasir

Someone dumped her in the book return slot of a public library at 3 AM.

The morning librarian at a small branch library in Terre Haute, Indiana, opened the book return bin behind the front desk at 7:15 on a Monday morning and found a cat sitting on top of a pile of returned novels.

A small tortoiseshell. Maybe a year old. Sitting perfectly still on a stack of hardcovers with her paws tucked under her body like she'd been waiting.

The overnight security camera showed what had happened. At 3:12 AM, a car pulled into the parking lot with its headlights off. Someone got out, walked to the exterior book return slot, and pushed the cat through the opening. The slot is about ten inches wide. They fed her through headfirst. Then they drove away.

The cat landed on the returns pile inside the bin and stayed there for 4 hours in the dark until the library opened.

Home Sweet Home

The librarian's name was Connie. She'd worked at that branch for nineteen years. She said she'd found a lot of strange things in the return bin. Coffee cups. A wallet. Someone's dentures once. Never a cat.

She lifted her out and set her on the circulation desk. The cat sat down on a stack of checkout receipts and started purring.

Connie called animal control. They said they'd pick her up between noon and three. Connie said fine. She put a bowl of water on the floor behind the desk and went back to opening the library.

By ten o'clock, the cat had walked out from behind the desk and was sitting on the windowsill in the children's section. A three-year-old girl coming in for story time saw her and said "kitty" and the cat didn't move. Just sat there in the sun with her eyes half-closed while the girl touched her ears.

Animal control showed up at one fifteen. Connie met them at the front door. She told them she'd changed her mind. She said the cat was staying.

Her manager called her that afternoon. When Connie told her what had happened, her manager asked if a library could have a cat. Connie said, "Now this one does."

A Cat Named Dewey

That was many months ago. Dewey sits on the circulation desk during operating hours and goes home with Connie when the library is closed. She sleeps on the windowsill in the children's section during story time and makes herself comfortable among the books when nobody is around. She has a bed behind the front desk made out of a donated dog crate lined with a quilt a patron brought, which she loves.

The branch's foot traffic is up fourteen percent since Dewey arrived. The children's section has a waiting list for story time for the first time in six years.

Connie printed the security camera still of the moment the cat came through the book slot and pinned it to the staff bulletin board with a note underneath that reads: "Returned in perfect condition."

Life can be stranger than fiction. And sometimes magical things really do happen.