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The Furry Faces of Bookselling: Volume II
- By Liz Button
Printer-friendly versionWith bookstore pets, indie booksellers around the country foster a sense of warmth and community while also creating a unique destination for customers. Last summer, Bookselling This Week chronicled the pets that make bookstores their home. In this second volume of “The Furry Faces of Bookselling: Bookstore Pets,” BTW highlights more of the dogs and cats that have won the hearts of bookstore customers across the country.
Riley, a rescue dog from a local shelter, is the official mascot of The Dog Eared Book in Palmyra, New York, according to owner Carrie Deming. Every year at Riley’s birthday, the store holds a sale where people get a discount if they bring in a donation for the local humane society, said Deming.
“Riley is super sweet and friendly and children love saying hi to him! Parents love it because their kids are entertained by the dog while they get to browse as long as they want without their children getting bored and cranky,” said Deming. “I think the hardest part is making sure the treats kids want to give him are actually dog safe.”
Poppy, a three-year-old Norfolk terrier, has been patrolling the halls of Forever Books in St. Joseph, Michigan, since she was introduced at the store earlier this summer. She’s also been sitting in for children’s story times, said store owner Robin Allen.
Allen previously had a golden retriever mix named Trevor who served as the bookstore’s unofficial mascot; she told the The Herald Palladium that for the past six years Trevor has been gone, people have been asking when the store was getting another dog.
Jamie Hope Anderson, book buyer for Duck’s Cottage Coffee & Books and owner of Downtown Books in Manteo, North Carolina, said Downtown Books began working with the local SPCA last spring to foster cats that were available for adoption.
“In our area, a lot of cats are surrendered when their owners move into nursing homes or pass on,” said Anderson. “We are also on the Outer Banks and being a resort area, our customers come from all over the country; thus, these often older or overweight companion cats get in front of a much larger audience for possible adoption.”
Sixteen-year-old Sylvester, the store’s first foster cat, was adopted after just two weeks when a couple from Tennessee fell in love with him; next came 12-year-old Missy, who was adopted by an owner from Virginia after a month; since then, the store has fostered Skipper, Butternut, and Curious George.
“We always have a flier posted about the current foster cat with as much information as we have, what we’ve discovered about their personality, and more,” said Anderson. “People love the idea of the program, and it has gotten us huge points in the ‘feel good about your indie’ department.”
Anderson also noted that any pictures or videos of cats the store posts to social media tend to do better than any book post.
Julie Bond, the sales and marketing manager at Read Booksellers in Danville, California, said she has always owned rough coat collies (the dog featured in the classic TV show ‘Lassie’), and her current collie, Desi, loves coming to work with her.
“Desi is a registered pet assisted therapy dog who is part of a program where kids read to him to enhance their literacy and love of books,” Bond told BTW. “Desi is a sweetheart. He’s over in the kids department right now schmoozing with kids reading Lassie Come Home to him.”
According to Lori Fisher, owner of Quarter Moon Books & Gifts in Topsail Beach, North Carolina, Socks was a stray cat who showed up at the store about three years ago and made himself at home. Now, Socks usually chooses to spend the nights outside and the days sprawled on the couch in the store’s reading section.
“After taking him for vaccination updates, and later nursing him back to health after a cat fight which almost killed him, I decided I had invested enough to call him our own,” said Fisher. “We’re actually planning to produce a calendar with pictures of Socks to create revenue for his vet bills.”
Fisher added that since Socks came around, Beverly Cleary’s Socks has become one of the store’s bestselling children’s books.
Steven Carl McCasland, the marketing/events manager at The Drama Book Shop in New York City, told BTW that his store’s official “mascot” is Chester, an eight-year-old Spitz.
“Chester sits on the counter next to our cash register and greets customers as they come in,” said McCasland. “He never barks and is amazingly well-behaved. Our customers love him; so recently we started posting his ‘picks’ on Instagram. In each photo, Chester recommends a play, since that is primarily what we sell.”
Booksellers are invited to share stories and photos of their bookstore pets with BTW for future series installments of “The Furry Faces of Bookselling”.