These polls are not scientific and are intended for entertainment purposes only.
|
|
|
|
| 6/4/2010 2:30:00 PM | Email • Print • Submit a story
Comment on this article | Neo the cat checks into new home
Feline finds new library to sleep in and many new friends at Suzanne Elise Assisted Living Center
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE - Neo has a new home.
The 11-year-old white cat that roamed the Seaside Library for nine years is now ensconced at the Suzanne Elise Assisted Living Center and reportedly is happy to be there.
She even has her own library.
"She's just fitting in well - amazingly well," said Julia Vervair, executive director of Suzanne Elise.
"We set her up in the (center's) library - that's where her food and litter box are," Vervair said. "It's a quiet spot for her to go to."
Neo moved to the center last Tuesday after the Seaside Library Board agreed that she had to move. Complaints by patrons and the library staff members about allergies prompted the move, but it wasn't a popular decision.
The very independent - but very loved - domestic shorthair had captured hearts from Astoria to Nehalem and even beyond Oregon.
"Our summer visitors keep coming in and the first thing they ask is, 'Where is the cat?'" said Connie Word, circulation assistant.
But after interviewing Vervair, the library staff decided that, because the center was a big place and had a lot of people but might not be as "hectic" as the library, it might be a good place for Neo, Word said.
As the news spread about the impending move, people wrote letters and one library patron even read an original children's story on KMUN radio. Library Director Reita Fackerell received letters, and although some reportedly were sent to Seaside Mayor Don Larson, he claims he never heard any comment about Neo.
But Larson is happy that Neo is now residing at the assisted-living center.
"Oh I love it," he said. "That's where old people like me go."
One of those letters, written by J. Brian Johnstone from Nehalem, suggested that the allergy symptoms actually came from the building and not Neo. Others have agreed.
"When I enter the library, I can smell the fumes, and when I leave, my eyes are red as well, as I have developed a bad headache," Johnstone said in his e-mail letter, which was addressed to the mayor and also was sent to Winstanley.
He said the library's staff and volunteers feel "something is in the air" because of new building products. Removing Neo would be "tantamount to animal abuse at the hands of the city and the board, as the cat cannot speak in its own defense," said Johnstone, who with his wife, Kate, shares their home with four cats.
He also referred to the book, "Dewey The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World," written by retired librarian Vicki Myron, of Spencer, Ohio, to Fackerell.
Marga Stanley, of Astoria, who spends time in the Astoria and Seaside libraries researching the children's stories she reads on KMUN, suggested that glue from carpeting or toxic drywall from China may be causing the problems.
"There are issues there," Stanley said in an interview. "I get a headache after I leave," she added, and she doesn't think that or her itchy eyes are from allergies.
"I don't think it sends a good message to children to have Neo all those years and then move her," she added.
Stanley even wrote and read a children's story about the move on KMUN. Called "Libby's Home," the story revolved around a white kitten adopted by the staff of a small, coastal library. She was named "Libby, the Library Cat," and she (just as Neo did at the Seaside Library), slept on top of the bookcases. When it came time to move out of the small library into a larger building, Libby moved along with everyone else.
But when "Trouble Troll" complained about white hairs clinging to his black cloak and demanded that Libby be removed, the "Big Bosses" said Libby needed a new home.
In Stanley's story, however, the village king calls for a town hall meeting, and he sees a sign being carried by a protester reminding the king that the library staff had made a commitment to Libby. "By golly," the king tells the crowd, that commitment will be kept. Libby remains at the library in this fairy tale.
Fackerell admitted the new library building, opened in September 2008, has had air quality problems, and improvements are being made to the ventilation system. At first, she and the board considered only a temporary move for Neo to determine if the itchy eyes, sniffling noses and headaches went away.
But the aging cat also was starting to "slap" people, especially children who might be a little too frisky, Fackerell said.
The decision, however, "was not easy, not easy for the community, not easy for anybody.
"After this flack, I'm not up for another Neogate," Fackerell said. "In Neo's defense, though, except for the scratching and the shedding, she was a perfect library cat," Fackerell said.
At the center, Neo stays upstairs for now, while Ernie, a former animal shelter cat, hangs out downstairs and around the front desk, Vervair said. Neo enjoys walking the halls and peeking into residents' rooms. Some residents are watching out for her and report frequently about how she's doing. No one seems to be having any allergy problems.
"She likes the activity, and she enjoys the window seats," Vervair said.
• Photo of Neo on Page 1A by Nancy McCarthy of The Daily Astorian
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
|
Submit Photos
