If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
I received a copy of this book for Christmas, from my wonderful elderly
mother. I doubt if I own more than 3 or 4 hard cover books that aren't textbooks, or technical manuals. On the dust cover is a very extraordinary photograph of the famous Dewey. He is a long hair orange tabby, with a bit of white around his mouth, and on his neck. He looks out of the photograph *directly* into your eyes, his head slightly tilted ever so slightly to one side. He has the amber eyes that some orange tabbies have. The kind that you can just get lost in. Somebody dumps the yet to be named kitten in the book return box on a day in January when the temperature was -15F. That's -26C, for those using the metric system. It's really, really, really cold. I have spent time outdoors when it's been -15F, (and much colder). It can only be described as brutally, dangerously cold. Where I live, we will get temperatures this cold many times every winter. With the warmest and most expensive cold weather clothing I can afford, I can only stay outdoors for a few hours, before my hands, and especially my feet, start to get dangerously cold. Frostbite, which means frozen skin, muscles, tendons and blood vessels, soon follows. The blood leaves the extremities, to keep the internal organs warm. The extremities freeze. Then the temperature in the core of the body begins to drop. The chemical reactions that occur every second, that supply energy and nutrients to every cell in the body, slow down. Eventually, they slow to the point where life can no longer be sustained. Whoever dumped poor Dewey in that drop box was condemning him to a virtually certain, cruel death. But, he didn't freeze to death, of course. And thus began the incredible story of how Dewey came to live in the library in the small farming community of Spencer, Iowa. The book is as much about life in the small Iowa farming community, as it is about this marvelous cat that became such an important part of it. Some chapters hardly mention Dewey at all, as the book weaves the complex story of the background of Spencer, Iowa, and the people who live there. The librarian, Vicki Myron, grew up on a farm outside of Spencer. She had a very difficult life: a bad marriage, followed by single motherhood. Opportunities were few, and difficult for her. The book was especially interesting to me. I grew up about 100 miles north of Iowa. I know many of the cities in Iowa; I've been in, or at least driven through most of them. I dated a woman who grew up on a small farm in Iowa, for a long time. Vicki graduated from Mankato State University, In Minnesota. My older brother went there. Southern and western Minnesota is almost exactly like Iowa: mile after mile of corn. The land isn't as flat, but from the top of a small rise, all you can see is farmland. Mostly the corn that Iowa is so famous for. And every 20 or 30 miles, there is a small town. Farming communities just like Spencer, Iowa. Where Dewey lived. In the library. It is a truly wonderful book. Those of you who live overseas, or even in different parts of the USA, won't find it as familiar as I did. But the book is so well written, with so much detail and character development, you will find yourself immersed in the culture of Spencer, Iowa, just as much as I was. And, although I have said a lot about Spencer, Iowa; the book IS really about the most wonderful cat you could ever possibly imagine. This is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read for a very, very long time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ "Life without cats would be only marginally worth living." -TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie. Every day is a treasure with Kenzie; I try to treat them that way. There will only be so many, and then there will never, ever, be any more. How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven. - Robert Heinlein |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
And, our Dan M or Pam S could write such a book. Others too I am sure.
"Gandalf" wrote in message ... I received a copy of this book for Christmas, from my wonderful elderly mother. I doubt if I own more than 3 or 4 hard cover books that aren't textbooks, or technical manuals. On the dust cover is a very extraordinary photograph of the famous Dewey. He is a long hair orange tabby, with a bit of white around his mouth, and on his neck. He looks out of the photograph *directly* into your eyes, his head slightly tilted ever so slightly to one side. He has the amber eyes that some orange tabbies have. The kind that you can just get lost in. Somebody dumps the yet to be named kitten in the book return box on a day in January when the temperature was -15F. That's -26C, for those using the metric system. It's really, really, really cold. I have spent time outdoors when it's been -15F, (and much colder). It can only be described as brutally, dangerously cold. Where I live, we will get temperatures this cold many times every winter. With the warmest and most expensive cold weather clothing I can afford, I can only stay outdoors for a few hours, before my hands, and especially my feet, start to get dangerously cold. Frostbite, which means frozen skin, muscles, tendons and blood vessels, soon follows. The blood leaves the extremities, to keep the internal organs warm. The extremities freeze. Then the temperature in the core of the body begins to drop. The chemical reactions that occur every second, that supply energy and nutrients to every cell in the body, slow down. Eventually, they slow to the point where life can no longer be sustained. Whoever dumped poor Dewey in that drop box was condemning him to a virtually certain, cruel death. But, he didn't freeze to death, of course. And thus began the incredible story of how Dewey came to live in the library in the small farming community of Spencer, Iowa. The book is as much about life in the small Iowa farming community, as it is about this marvelous cat that became such an important part of it. Some chapters hardly mention Dewey at all, as the book weaves the complex story of the background of Spencer, Iowa, and the people who live there. The librarian, Vicki Myron, grew up on a farm outside of Spencer. She had a very difficult life: a bad marriage, followed by single motherhood. Opportunities were few, and difficult for her. The book was especially interesting to me. I grew up about 100 miles north of Iowa. I know many of the cities in Iowa; I've been in, or at least driven through most of them. I dated a woman who grew up on a small farm in Iowa, for a long time. Vicki graduated from Mankato State University, In Minnesota. My older brother went there. Southern and western Minnesota is almost exactly like Iowa: mile after mile of corn. The land isn't as flat, but from the top of a small rise, all you can see is farmland. Mostly the corn that Iowa is so famous for. And every 20 or 30 miles, there is a small town. Farming communities just like Spencer, Iowa. Where Dewey lived. In the library. It is a truly wonderful book. Those of you who live overseas, or even in different parts of the USA, won't find it as familiar as I did. But the book is so well written, with so much detail and character development, you will find yourself immersed in the culture of Spencer, Iowa, just as much as I was. And, although I have said a lot about Spencer, Iowa; the book IS really about the most wonderful cat you could ever possibly imagine. This is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read for a very, very long time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ "Life without cats would be only marginally worth living." -TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie. Every day is a treasure with Kenzie; I try to treat them that way. There will only be so many, and then there will never, ever, be any more. How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven. - Robert Heinlein |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
"Gandalf" wrote in message ... I received a copy of this book for Christmas, from my wonderful elderly mother. I doubt if I own more than 3 or 4 hard cover books that aren't textbooks, or technical manuals. On the dust cover is a very extraordinary photograph of the famous Dewey. He is a long hair orange tabby, with a bit of white around his mouth, and on his neck. He looks out of the photograph *directly* into your eyes, his head slightly tilted ever so slightly to one side. He has the amber eyes that some orange tabbies have. The kind that you can just get lost in. Somebody dumps the yet to be named kitten in the book return box on a day in January when the temperature was -15F. That's -26C, for those using the metric system. It's really, really, really cold. I have spent time outdoors when it's been -15F, (and much colder). It can only be described as brutally, dangerously cold. Where I live, we will get temperatures this cold many times every winter. With the warmest and most expensive cold weather clothing I can afford, I can only stay outdoors for a few hours, before my hands, and especially my feet, start to get dangerously cold. Frostbite, which means frozen skin, muscles, tendons and blood vessels, soon follows. The blood leaves the extremities, to keep the internal organs warm. The extremities freeze. Then the temperature in the core of the body begins to drop. The chemical reactions that occur every second, that supply energy and nutrients to every cell in the body, slow down. Eventually, they slow to the point where life can no longer be sustained. Whoever dumped poor Dewey in that drop box was condemning him to a virtually certain, cruel death. But, he didn't freeze to death, of course. And thus began the incredible story of how Dewey came to live in the library in the small farming community of Spencer, Iowa. The book is as much about life in the small Iowa farming community, as it is about this marvelous cat that became such an important part of it. Some chapters hardly mention Dewey at all, as the book weaves the complex story of the background of Spencer, Iowa, and the people who live there. The librarian, Vicki Myron, grew up on a farm outside of Spencer. She had a very difficult life: a bad marriage, followed by single motherhood. Opportunities were few, and difficult for her. The book was especially interesting to me. I grew up about 100 miles north of Iowa. I know many of the cities in Iowa; I've been in, or at least driven through most of them. I dated a woman who grew up on a small farm in Iowa, for a long time. Vicki graduated from Mankato State University, In Minnesota. My older brother went there. Southern and western Minnesota is almost exactly like Iowa: mile after mile of corn. The land isn't as flat, but from the top of a small rise, all you can see is farmland. Mostly the corn that Iowa is so famous for. And every 20 or 30 miles, there is a small town. Farming communities just like Spencer, Iowa. Where Dewey lived. In the library. It is a truly wonderful book. Those of you who live overseas, or even in different parts of the USA, won't find it as familiar as I did. But the book is so well written, with so much detail and character development, you will find yourself immersed in the culture of Spencer, Iowa, just as much as I was. And, although I have said a lot about Spencer, Iowa; the book IS really about the most wonderful cat you could ever possibly imagine. This is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read for a very, very long time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ I haven't read this book, because I know it will absolutely wreck me. I was working in the New York Historical Society when "Dewey" came out, and somebody tacked a review to the bulletin board with the note "Can we have a cat? Please?" Sigh. Wasn't likely to happen. But I would have loved it. -- Theresa and Dante drtmuirATearthlink.net Stinky Forever: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
The author has a new kitten, an orange and white bitty who was found in
the middle of the road by Sue Selzer. More on her discovery can be read he http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/n...-new-cat_N.htm Adorable baby! Mishi |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
"Mishi" wrote in message ... The author has a new kitten, an orange and white bitty who was found in the middle of the road by Sue Selzer. More on her discovery can be read he http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/n...-new-cat_N.htm Adorable baby! Mishi Yay! I'm so glad. -- Theresa and Dante drtmuirATearthlink.net Stinky Forever: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
I'm glad you're enjoying the book I need to get a copy for myself.
Did your Mother's gift ever arrive? Love Kyla "Gandalf" I received a copy of this book for Christmas, from my wonderful elderly mother. I doubt if I own more than 3 or 4 hard cover books that aren't textbooks, or technical manuals. On the dust cover is a very extraordinary photograph of the famous Dewey. He is a long hair orange tabby, with a bit of white around his mouth, and on his neck. He looks out of the photograph *directly* into your eyes, his head slightly tilted ever so slightly to one side. He has the amber eyes that some orange tabbies have. The kind that you can just get lost in. Somebody dumps the yet to be named kitten in the book return box on a day in January when the temperature was -15F. That's -26C, for those using the metric system. It's really, really, really cold. I have spent time outdoors when it's been -15F, (and much colder). It can only be described as brutally, dangerously cold. Where I live, we will get temperatures this cold many times every winter. With the warmest and most expensive cold weather clothing I can afford, I can only stay outdoors for a few hours, before my hands, and especially my feet, start to get dangerously cold. Frostbite, which means frozen skin, muscles, tendons and blood vessels, soon follows. The blood leaves the extremities, to keep the internal organs warm. The extremities freeze. Then the temperature in the core of the body begins to drop. The chemical reactions that occur every second, that supply energy and nutrients to every cell in the body, slow down. Eventually, they slow to the point where life can no longer be sustained. Whoever dumped poor Dewey in that drop box was condemning him to a virtually certain, cruel death. But, he didn't freeze to death, of course. And thus began the incredible story of how Dewey came to live in the library in the small farming community of Spencer, Iowa. The book is as much about life in the small Iowa farming community, as it is about this marvelous cat that became such an important part of it. Some chapters hardly mention Dewey at all, as the book weaves the complex story of the background of Spencer, Iowa, and the people who live there. The librarian, Vicki Myron, grew up on a farm outside of Spencer. She had a very difficult life: a bad marriage, followed by single motherhood. Opportunities were few, and difficult for her. The book was especially interesting to me. I grew up about 100 miles north of Iowa. I know many of the cities in Iowa; I've been in, or at least driven through most of them. I dated a woman who grew up on a small farm in Iowa, for a long time. Vicki graduated from Mankato State University, In Minnesota. My older brother went there. Southern and western Minnesota is almost exactly like Iowa: mile after mile of corn. The land isn't as flat, but from the top of a small rise, all you can see is farmland. Mostly the corn that Iowa is so famous for. And every 20 or 30 miles, there is a small town. Farming communities just like Spencer, Iowa. Where Dewey lived. In the library. It is a truly wonderful book. Those of you who live overseas, or even in different parts of the USA, won't find it as familiar as I did. But the book is so well written, with so much detail and character development, you will find yourself immersed in the culture of Spencer, Iowa, just as much as I was. And, although I have said a lot about Spencer, Iowa; the book IS really about the most wonderful cat you could ever possibly imagine. This is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read for a very, very long time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ "Life without cats would be only marginally worth living." -TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie. Every day is a treasure with Kenzie; I try to treat them that way. There will only be so many, and then there will never, ever, be any more. How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven. - Robert Heinlein |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 14:45:14 -0800, "Kyla =^..^="
wrote: I'm glad you're enjoying the book I need to get a copy for myself. Did your Mother's gift ever arrive? Love Kyla Yes; with overnight shipping, it showed up on Dec 24th. "Gandalf" I received a copy of this book for Christmas, from my wonderful elderly mother. I doubt if I own more than 3 or 4 hard cover books that aren't textbooks, or technical manuals. On the dust cover is a very extraordinary photograph of the famous Dewey. He is a long hair orange tabby, with a bit of white around his mouth, and on his neck. He looks out of the photograph *directly* into your eyes, his head slightly tilted ever so slightly to one side. He has the amber eyes that some orange tabbies have. The kind that you can just get lost in. Somebody dumps the yet to be named kitten in the book return box on a day in January when the temperature was -15F. That's -26C, for those using the metric system. It's really, really, really cold. I have spent time outdoors when it's been -15F, (and much colder). It can only be described as brutally, dangerously cold. Where I live, we will get temperatures this cold many times every winter. With the warmest and most expensive cold weather clothing I can afford, I can only stay outdoors for a few hours, before my hands, and especially my feet, start to get dangerously cold. Frostbite, which means frozen skin, muscles, tendons and blood vessels, soon follows. The blood leaves the extremities, to keep the internal organs warm. The extremities freeze. Then the temperature in the core of the body begins to drop. The chemical reactions that occur every second, that supply energy and nutrients to every cell in the body, slow down. Eventually, they slow to the point where life can no longer be sustained. Whoever dumped poor Dewey in that drop box was condemning him to a virtually certain, cruel death. But, he didn't freeze to death, of course. And thus began the incredible story of how Dewey came to live in the library in the small farming community of Spencer, Iowa. The book is as much about life in the small Iowa farming community, as it is about this marvelous cat that became such an important part of it. Some chapters hardly mention Dewey at all, as the book weaves the complex story of the background of Spencer, Iowa, and the people who live there. The librarian, Vicki Myron, grew up on a farm outside of Spencer. She had a very difficult life: a bad marriage, followed by single motherhood. Opportunities were few, and difficult for her. The book was especially interesting to me. I grew up about 100 miles north of Iowa. I know many of the cities in Iowa; I've been in, or at least driven through most of them. I dated a woman who grew up on a small farm in Iowa, for a long time. Vicki graduated from Mankato State University, In Minnesota. My older brother went there. Southern and western Minnesota is almost exactly like Iowa: mile after mile of corn. The land isn't as flat, but from the top of a small rise, all you can see is farmland. Mostly the corn that Iowa is so famous for. And every 20 or 30 miles, there is a small town. Farming communities just like Spencer, Iowa. Where Dewey lived. In the library. It is a truly wonderful book. Those of you who live overseas, or even in different parts of the USA, won't find it as familiar as I did. But the book is so well written, with so much detail and character development, you will find yourself immersed in the culture of Spencer, Iowa, just as much as I was. And, although I have said a lot about Spencer, Iowa; the book IS really about the most wonderful cat you could ever possibly imagine. This is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read for a very, very long time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^ "Life without cats would be only marginally worth living." -TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie. Every day is a treasure with Kenzie; I try to treat them that way. There will only be so many, and then there will never, ever, be any more. How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven. - Robert Heinlein |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
On Jan 3, 7:57*am, Mishi wrote:
The author has a new kitten, an orange and white bitty who was found in the middle of the road by Sue Selzer. More on her discovery can be read hehttp://www.usatoday.com/life/books/n...-new-cat_N.htm Adorable baby! Mishi Oh, she's so cute, she looks a lot like Dewey, baby Page. Candace |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
On Jan 3, 7:36*pm, Candace wrote:
On Jan 3, 7:57*am, Mishi wrote: The author has a new kitten, an orange and white bitty who was found in the middle of the road by Sue Selzer. More on her discovery can be read hehttp://www.usatoday.com/life/books/n...new-cat_N..htm Adorable baby! Mishi That's a kitten?!? I wonder how large a cat she's going to be? Julie |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
Gandalf wrote:
On the dust cover is a very extraordinary photograph of the famous Dewey. He is a long hair orange tabby, with a bit of white around his mouth, and on his neck. I just put a hold on this book at my library. I also put holds on two other cat books, "The Power of Purrs", about rescuing and fostering stray cats, and "A Cat Named Squeeky", another stray cat story (with an adorable painting of the main character on the cover). I guess I'll be reading a lot about cats in coming months! -- Joyce ^..^ (To email me, remove the X's from my user name.) |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Dewey the library cat dies in librarian's arms | kraut | Cat community | 8 | November 1st 08 05:50 PM |
Dewey the Library Cat (Got this via email from Scott McKenzie) | jmcquown | Cat anecdotes | 4 | April 8th 07 10:44 PM |
I touched the outdoor cat | dgk | Cat health & behaviour | 9 | February 8th 07 03:09 PM |
Dewey Library Cat RIP | Kreisleriana | Cat anecdotes | 12 | December 8th 06 10:02 PM |
I touched Bruver! | Shirley2307 | Cat anecdotes | 12 | August 2nd 06 12:13 PM |