Tag Archives: cat

Totally Twinning!

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When it comes to stylish pet cats, what can we say? It’s a total match!

We read My Cat Looks Like My Dad by Thao Lam (Owlkids Books, 2019). Dad and the cat both have orange hair and like milk, but the similarities don’t stop there! From afternoon naps to outdoor fun, Dad and the cat are remarkably (and adorably) alike. This is a fun, funny book with a super cute twist at the end, we highly recommend it!

You’ll need:

  • 1 small oatmeal container
  • An assortment of construction paper
  • Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
  • Markers for decorating

This project is basically an oatmeal container cat you can entirely decorate with construction paper. We added a self-adhesive foam nose, twisteez wire whiskers, and wiggle eyes for some texture. But do the cats below look familiar?

Maybe this photo will help…

Cat twins, activate! Yes, the point of the project was to match the cat to YOU! We encouraged the story time kids to take stock of their hair, outfits, and color preferences and design a twin cat. The results were adorable.

We brought out the Bling Bin for some extra crafting materials, and also supplied ribbons, foam beads, and bells in case kids wanted to make matching neck gear!

The Great Catsby

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It’s the party to end all parties, old sport! To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of “The Great Gatsby” this April, Princeton University Library held a suite of on- and off-campus programming inspired by the library’s significant F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Great Gatsby” related holdings. The Cotsen Children’s Library joined the festivities with our own event full of frivolity and splendor with a decidedly feline twist. We called it…“The Great Catsby!”

We don’t normally do decor at our events, but we we couldn’t resist decking the gallery out with dazzling gold tinsel and Art Deco photo backdrops. Luckily, “Gatsby” is a popular prom theme, so there was no shortage of inexpensive resources to choose from.

As some of you may have already guessed, the gold tinsel almost stole the entire show. Kids ran through it, swatted it, wore it as hair, and sat quietly with it tickling their faces. They also pulled it out in handfuls and threw it all over the gallery. It was a total mess after the event, and we’re still finding strands of tinsel in the library, but it was worth it!

At the back of the gallery, amidst strains of period jazz music, was cat mask decorating. We offered metallic markers, gold leaves, twisteez wire, stickers, glitter shapes, tiny bows, self-adhesive jewels, feathers, and metallic paper. There were three types of white paper masks to choose from. The most popular by far was the full cat face:

We also offered a smaller, more focused art activity elsewhere in the gallery – coloring sheets that featured the work of British artist Louis Wain, who was popular during the Gatsby era! Wain became famous for his drawings of cats depicted with human-like appearance and behavior, and we pulled images from our special collections to share with the community.

If you’d like to try the Louis Wain coloring sheets yourself (and others from our collections), visit Coloring Cotsen, our coloring sheet central!

For the adventurous, we ran a “Literary Cats Scavenger Hunt” in the gallery during the event. Kids were invited to find 10 page-famous cats: The Cat in the Hat, The Cheshire Cat, Crookshanks, Felix, Garfield, Hobbes, Pete, Puss in Boots, Skippyjon Jones, and Tigger. There was also a cameo appearance of Zelda Fitzgerald’s kitty, Chopin.

It was interesting to see which literary cats kids were familiar with, and which ones completely stumped them. The two most recognized were The Cat in Hat and Hobbes, and the two least recognized were Felix and Crookshanks.

Speaking of familiar cats, we thought it would be fun to ask library staff to submit portraits for a “Match the Librarian to Their Cat” game. Hint: staff wore their cat’s colors, and even hilariously replicated their poses and expressions.

Our Great Catsby event was also a cat food drive to benefit SAVE, our local animal shelter and all around wonderful organization! Founded in 1941, SAVE is a non-profit that strives to shelter, foster, heal, and re-home dogs and cats.

What can we say? It was a PARTY! The Great Catsby was light, lively, festive, and fun. Best of all, SAVE shelter was gifted lots of cat food for kitties waiting for their forever homes!

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Many thanks to staff members Maria Gorbunova, Morgan Kirkpatrick, Hilary Murusmith, Lisa Read, Emma Sarconi, Dana Sheridan, Eric White, and feline friends Beatrix, Benny, Cleo, George, Saoirse, Sneeze and Qalilaan for participating in the matching game!

Blog artwork by WildmenagerieArt

Shelter Story

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Puppies and kitties in our Storytime Shelter eagerly await adoption…bring your custom pet set (complete with carrier, treats, blanket, ball, collar, and food dishes) and find your forever friend!

We read Who Wants Broccoli? by Val Jones (Harper, 2015). Breezly’s Animal Shelter has many pets, but none quite as big, energetic, loud, and messy as Broccoli the dog. The problem is, most people want a slightly less…ah…enthusiastic pet in their homes. So Broccoli gets passed over time and time again. But when little Oscar moves across the street, a big energetic dog is EXACTLY what he wants. Yes! Broccoli and Oscar, together in love and loudness.

You’ll need:

  • 1 large tissue box
  • A box cutter
  • 1 strip of poster board
  • 1 toilet paper tube
  • 1 dog adoption papers template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper
  • Various pet accessories (more on this below!)
  • Scissors, tape, and stapler for construction
  • Markers for decorating

Accessories vary according to what you have on hand, but here’s our pet set…a carrier, treat canister, plastic ball, blanket, collar with bell, and a water and food dish.

We used a 4.5” X 4.5” x 9” craft box, but a large tissue box works too! Use a box cutter to make a little door in one side of the box. We added a foam bead knob to the door, and used a hole punch to create “air holes” as well. The pet carrier’s handle is a strip of poster board stapled to the lid. You can decorate the carrier with markers, or used color masking tape and patterned tape like we did.

We wanted the top of the carrier to open so kids could stash their supplies, but we didn’t want the lid flying open while they were carrying the box. So we rigged up a latch using foam beads and a small rubber band. It worked great!

In terms of accessories, our treat jars were old film canisters, the balls were leftover from our Willy Wonka escape room, and the food and water dishes were snippets of a toilet paper tube. A little bit of ribbon, a bell, and a square of fleece fabric completed the set.

But the REAL surprise? You actually got to take a dog home, courtesy of a major Beanie Baby donation to our library!

Yes! When kids were finished their pet carrier set, they walked over to our Storytime Shelter (which was a cardboard facade propped up by two small tissue boxes).

Kids waited outside the shelter while Katie asked them the following questions…

Do you like dogs that bark, or dogs that are more quiet?
Do you like dogs that do tricks?
Do you like to play ball?
Do you want an adult dog? Or a puppy?
Will you take good care of your dog?

When all the questions were answered, Katie would select a Beanie Baby dog and “run” it out the shelter door to the kids, and the official adoption papers would be signed!

After everyone had a dog, we made another special announcement. You would get to select ANOTHER Beanie Baby companion for it! And out came a massive box of Beanie Babies to choose from. Were the kids excited? Oh, they were WAY excited! So were the grown ups! Hah!

We had enough Beanie Babies to allow younger siblings to adopt pets as well. So no one left the Storytime Shelter empty handed.

And now, an incredibly sweet coincidence…one little girl selected a cat from the big box of Beanies. She selected the VERY same version of the Beanie Baby kitty that had been her mom’s lovie so many years before. As the lovie was in storage, the little girl couldn’t have possibly known it was the twin to her mom’s. But she picked the very one.

Tears in my eyes!