“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”         Proverbs 15

January 18, 1988 – Spencer Public Library – Spencer, Iowa: Vicki Myron, the librarian for the farming town’s 11,000 residents, arrived Monday morning at 8 a.m. as she always did. The temperature was -15 degrees, with a wind chill of 30 below, so she buttoned her coat, put on her gloves, and walked quickly from her car to the library. After getting coffee, she went to the book drop-off chute to collect the weekend returns.

Vicki thought she heard a muffled squeak, maybe a mouse or a cat. Collecting an armload of books from the bin, she saw it in the bottom: a filthy, gray, half-starved, half-frozen kitten. “Aww, what are you doing in here?” she whispered. After a bath to warm it up, the kitten was not gray but a yellow tabby. That afternoon, a veterinarian began treating the cat’s paws for frostbite. He guessed the kitten was about 8 weeks old and Vicki slowly nursed it back to health.

 The staff thought the library should adopt the cat, so Vicki got approval from the library board and the city council. The next order of business was to name him and by then word had spread to the community that there was a cat living in the library. Almost 400 suggestions came in from library patrons. The staff chose Dewey from the Dewey Decimal book classification system used in America since 1876. The library motto Read More Books made a fine last name, so the yellow tabby officially became Dewey Readmore Books.

Dewey soon had the run of the 13,000-square-foot library. He was king and he knew it. Dewey was at the door when the staff arrived at 8 a.m. and back again at 9 a.m. when the first patrons came in. He never met a stranger. Calm, cute, fun-loving, outgoing, and smart with a sense of humor, Dewey loved everybody and everybody loved him. By his first birthday celebration, he had a big fan club.

Dewey loved typewriters and copy machines and hated vacuum cleaners. He ate lunch daily with the staff, and someone usually brought him yogurt. Afterwards he hitched a ride on the book cart and helped shelve books. Dewey loved to hide among the 400 shelves and jump out surprising staff and library goers. His favorite hiding place was the bottom shelf of the Western novels. He also loved to climb into book bags and backpacks and surprise owners.

Dewey, the library’s goodwill ambassador, attended all meetings, usually in a friendly lap. He had a special knack for seeking out people who were discouraged or depressed. Dewey could make anyone feel special. People who rarely patronized the library brought their friends by to show them the famous cat.

Dewey especially loved children. When a special needs class made their weekly trip to the library, Dewey was always at the door to greet them. You could set your watch by him. He visited with each child. They all loved him, and many sent money on his birthday and at Christmas for food and supplies. Emmy, a child with Downs syndrome, came every Sunday afternoon to feed Dewey. Throughout the week she would ask her mother, “Is it cat afternoon yet?”

Dewey’s fame spread nationally and then internationally. After he appeared in America’s cat magazines, cat lovers from every state came to Spencer to see him. He regularly appeared in nationwide magazines, newspapers, and on radio programs. Dewey received fan mail from faraway places like Europe, Israel, Taiwan, South Africa, Norway, and Australia. In 2003, when a Tokyo, Japan public television crew made a short film of Dewey, 150,000 Japanese visitors came to Spenser during the next 3 years.

Dewey died in Vicki’s arms on November 29, 2006, two weeks after the library celebrated his 19^th birthday. His death made national news, including ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC. An Associated Press story circulated around the world and Dewey’s obituary was published in more than 170 newspapers worldwide.

 The world’s most famous library cat inspired a town, a nation, and the world. He is still remembered by the thousands of people who were touched by his presence. Dewey Readmore Books was cremated and buried on the library front lawn and his portrait and bronze plaque hang in the Spencer library. In 2010, Vicki Myron’s book Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World became an International best-seller with more than two million copies sold.