Dewey The Whitestone Library rescue kitten
The Rescue!
On Friday, August 1st, 2014 the custodian at the Whitestone branch of the Queens Public Library, noticed a small kitten in a 4 inch gap between the side of the Library and the maintenance shed.
When no one was around, the kitten would come out, but as soon as anyone approached, she scurried back into her hiding place, about 10 feet back, well out of reach. The Librarians were notified, including Susan Scatena, the Children’s Librarian for the branch. I received an email from Miss Susan, as she is known at the library. I came over with a carrier, and both dry food and a can of wet food to help coax her out. The library was not open over the weekend, and I knew we had to rescue her. With all the reports of animal abuse and cruelty recently, and all the dangers of animals living on the street, it was simply not an option for me!
She was obviously very scared of humans, and I knew it would take more effort to coax her out. Miss Susan opened the maintenance shed for me, and inside were two wooden poles. I taped them together with duct tape, and very, very gently nudged her backside. She slowly started to come forward. I thought I could pick her up as she exited from the gap, but she took off running into the shed, with me closely behind. As she attempted to exit the shed, I managed to corner her near the door, scooped her up and into the carrier Miss Susan was holding for me! Success!!! She did hiss, growl, and scratch as we placed her in the carrier, but that was to be expected!
Miss Susan and I took her home that night. We left her in the carrier, along with food and water to allow her to calm down. She had been through enough trauma for one day! She spent the evening intently watching us from the back of the carrier! She seemed quite healthy, with a great set of lungs! ;^) She has a black mask on her face, black back and tail, all white underbelly, white and black legs and paws, and an interesting black dot on the end of her nose!
We have no idea where she came from, or how and when she ended up next to the Library. Is she from a feral cat’s litter and got separated (as I suspect), from an indoor litter that escaped, or was she just abandoned by an uncaring human? We may never know., and it really doesn’t matter. Wherever she was born and raised, she was amazingly clean!
The next morning, Saturday, we made an appointment with the Vet at North Shore Animal League, in Port Washington, Long Island, NY. In preparation for that visit, I wanted to see how wild, or how tame she was. I opened the carrier and reached in. She allowed me to pet her with no hissing or biting!
Dewey with the Vet
When we arrived at the vet, our first question of course, was whether the kitten was male or female. At that age, the anatomy of both sexes are so similar is is difficult or impossible to tell the difference. The Vet believes she is female, and we proceed on this assumption, but this will be confirmed later when she is a little older. (8/24/2014, It has been confirmed that she is female) The vet also estimated her to be approximately 5 weeks old, and her weight is a little over one pound! We have given her the unofficial birthday of June 28th, exactly two weeks after Miss Susan’s birthday!She was dewormed, and received flea and tick medicine, but blood tests and additional shots will have to wait till she is a little older.
Dewey & Miss Susan
We brought her home and transferred her to another larger carrier we have that fills up the entire back seat of a car. Later we brought her out to interact with her. She is obviously a very sweet kitten! Later in the evening, only 24 hours after she was rescued, she fell asleep on my lap! ;^)
As for the name, for the purposes of the Vet visit, we initially gave her the name of “Dewey”, after Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System. We were not sure at that time if we wanted to keep her. By Sunday, we could not see giving her up, so she officially had a home, and Miss Susan, the official owner, had settled on the name of “Dewey”. I have also given her the more formal name of “Whitestone Dewey” to differentiate her from the more famous Library Rescue cat, Dewey of the Spencer, Iowa Library, who was found one morning in the book slot by the head Librarian. We looked at alternative names, including my choice of “ISBN”, pronounced, “Is-Bin”, after the International Standard Book Number, every book in the library is assigned. Susan nixed my suggestion! ;^)
Whitestone Dewey
I think she has found a very good home with Miss Susan, and I. As a friend of ours, ironically named Kitty, “Dewey hit the kitty lotto!” ;^)
She has a playmate with Cullen, my very large, but very gentle brown Maine Coon Cat,. We recently lost Linus, a white and tan Turkish Angora, who I had for almost 11 years, who was Cullen’s buddy for the last 9 years. Cullen and Dewey have sniffed at each other, with a few licks by Cullen. I’m sure they will become good friends as Dewey gets a little older. She has, for the moment, a controlled run of some of the apartment, with more and more freedom as she gets older.
Although she lives at home with Miss Susan and I, hopefully, Dewey will be allowed to return to the Library for visits, and possibly become the Whitestone Library Mascot, as the Original Dewey did, in Spencer Iowa.
Miss Susan,
Whitestone Branch
Queens Public Library
151-10 14th Rd, Flushing, NY 11357
(718) 767-8010
Susan.V.Scatena@queenslibrary.org
