THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604190729
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bill Ruehlmann
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
As further evidence that public libraries are happening places, the Van Wyck branch in Norfolk had a slam-bang birthday party recently for Molly, bon vivant, official greeter and cat-in-residence.
She's 13, occasion enough for an assortment of cards, gifts and expressions of good will from patrons of fewer years and many more.
The stacks rang with a spirited rendition of ``Happy Birthday to You.'' Molly seemed pleased but had no comment for the press. The short-haired tortoiseshell tends to be private by preference; the only limelight she appears at all inclined toward manifests itself as a sunbeam on the carpet in the periodical room.
Sherry Clem, Van Wyck branch manager, dismissed recent gossip. ``Molly is not pregnant,'' the librarian said. ``She has merely acquired a middle-age spread.''
Kids blew out the candles for their feline friend, and 12-year-old Scott Robinett completed his Boy Scout reading badge with an adroit presentation of Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats.
Also present, paying respects and signing new books, were Norfolk writers Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, authors of The ABC of Cat Trivia (St. Martin's Press, 208 pp., $19.95).
Famed actress and cat fancier Betty White, who wrote the introduction to Evans and Berent's book, pronounced it ``pure unadulterated fun.''
She owns an outsized mouser named Bob. Um, as Molly would say, scratch that. No one owns a cat; a cat may elect to reside with a person.
Under certain conditions, of course.
Anyhow, The ABC of Cat Trivia contains the lowdown on the species, dating back to Abuherira, the friend of Mohammed who loved cats so much he was known as ``the father of the little cat,'' and forward to Zunar J5/90 Doric 4-7, star of Disney's feature ``The Cat from Outer Space.''
Provided here is a potpourri of catty perceptions:
l In California (where else?) one can find ``a cat resort, a cat department store, a feline rest home, a rent-a-cat agency, a pussycat dating service, cat psychics, cat psychiatrists, feline acting coaches and an annual meowing contest.''
l One of the main reasons a cat keeps itself clean is that it minimizes odors that might scare off its prey.
l White cats are likely to be deaf, and white cats with blue eyes are more likely to be deaf than those with orange eyes; a cat with one blue eye and one orange eye who is deaf in one ear is most likely deaf in the ear next to the blue eye.
l When cats drink water, they generally take four or five laps before they swallow.
l Former President Dwight Eisenhower, who hated cats, once ordered any feline seen on the grounds of his Gettysburg home shot.
l On the average, a cat's heart beats 240 times a minute; its average life expectancy is 14 years, though many have lived into their 20s and some into their 30s.
l Scientists claim that cat owners, as a group, are more independent in thought and action, whereas dog owners are more frequently team players; artists are more likely to prefer cats, while soldiers are more likely to prefer dogs.
``Cats,'' observed humorist Garrison Keillor, ``are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.''
On the other hand, writer Robert Stearns has pointed out, ``There is a ridiculous idea that dogs are superior to cats because cats cannot be trained. A cat will not jump into a lake and bring back a stick. Would you?''
Garfield's Law: Cats instinctively know the precise moment when their owners will awaken; then they awaken them 10 minutes earlier.
What is ``cat'' in Chinese?
Mao.
The prolific Evens and Berent are also authors of The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility and Traditional Values (Adams Publishing, 272 pp., $16). William F. Buckley Jr. wrote the introduction to this one. How do they get such august personages to write copy for their books?
Explains Berent, ``We ask them for it.''
Smarty cat. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia Wesleyan
College.
ILLUSTRATION: [Book Jacket]
by CNB