|
|
 |
|
| |
Domino proved hugely popular with children who visited the Heath library in Hampstead |
Library cat’s story comes to end
Moggy, who captured the hearts of bookworms and got fan mail from around the world, dies
EVERY library has its regulars – the people who pop in to return books, read the Camden New Journal and search the internet.
But has anyone shown such dedication and loyalty to the borough’s libraries as Domino the cat?
Sadly, the ginger Tom, who made the Heath library in Keats Grove, Hampstead, his home for the past two decades, passed away last week.
Known as “Keats Cat”, Domino, without realising, became a star attraction at the library. So much so that librarian Paula Rundell revealed she has been flooded with messages after the news that little Domino had died.
She said: “People have been very upset. He was like a public cat – some people even made special visits here to see him.”
One of Domino’s
fans was Hampstead pensioner, Allan Chappelow. Mr Chappelow, who was murdered in 2006 in his Downshire Hill home around the corner from the library, was a regular at Keats Grove and would make a special point of spending a few minutes with Domino.
Paula said the cat, who was owned by a family who live in Keats Grove who didn’t mind sharing their much-loved pet, knew the library times as if he had a borrower’s card in his paw.
“I’ve been here for 11 years and he was here before that,” she said. “He came in every single day. He would be waiting outside for us in the mornings. At night, we’d flick the lights and he would walk out.”
And the relationship between cat, librarians and library users was a two-way deal.
“It was nice and calming to have him here,” said Paula.
As well as having a favourite seat by the book shelves, Domino could be found on sunny days lazing in Keats Garden.
He had previously, before finding a nook in the library, been a visitor to the poet’s home. He even got fan mail from American school- children, who addressed their letters to “Keats Cat”. But in 1997, when the home was taken over by the City of London, cats were banned and Domino made his main residence a comfy corner armchair in the library, where visitors would come and find him for a stroke.
His routine would also include joining the weekly reading group – he would select a lap each week and then snooze gently as literary matters were chewed over.
Author and radio producer Piers Plowright met Domino three years ago and was enchanted by his friendly manner.
He said: “I never saw Domino read any of the newspapers or books, though I liked to make bad jokes about catalogues and eschatology and bureaucats. He seemed to belong in the domed and friendly space of the Keats Grove Library, or rather it seemed to belong to him. He went so suddenly and quietly, I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye.”
Domino’s admirers stretched beyond the borrowers from the library: his fame was such that moggy magazine Your Cat even made a point of running a double-page spread on a day in the life of the animal.
Purrfect! Poem for Domino
DOMINOS'’s life touched many – and to mark his time in the library, pupils at the nearby Fleet Primary School have produced a display of work in the library to celebrate his life.
Their poems and pictures reveal the depth of affection felt for this very special moggy.
A pupil called Georgia wrote:
There was once an old cat,
a very old cat,
We like him so much say the staff, They say that
He is first to arrive in the morning,
And he’s always the last to leave.
But although he makes the seats all hairy,
I’m beginning to believe,
The reason he loves the library is,
It’s silent
It’s still
It’s calm
There is no rushing, traffic pushing.
It’s just purrfect |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
