Library Cat Adorably Dresses Up In Cute Costumes To Promote The Library

His job is obviously super important.

Elana

• Published in Animal Stories
• July 10, 2021

As cat lovers, you've heard of Caturday before, the day of the week we all relentlessly celebrate all things cat! Well, the Centre County Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania has also heard of this beloved cat centered "holiday."

It's at this Pennsylvania library that bibliographic services assistant Lisa Shaffer dresses up her cat Horatio every Saturday (Caturday) in adorable, elaborate, and hilarious costumes to help promote the library. Lisa makes the costumes for her cat Horatio herself!

If, even as a cat crazed person yourself, you are wondering why would Lisa do this, the answer is quite simple. Lisa noticed that her beloved library had virtually no social media presence and set out to fix that, with her sweet cat, Horatio, on board.

Lisa asked her supervisor if she could "share pictures of her cats dressed up as famous characters from literature and pop culture."

Her supervisor gave the okay and Lisa got to work, and the results are equal parts hilarious and adorable. The creativity is undeniable.

Lisa said:

"I just started taking books, random books that would be interesting to highlight."

She added:

“Or if it was an author’s birthday or anniversary of some event, I would get a picture of one of my cats, mostly Horatio, and it just kind of went from there.”

As I'm sure you and I were expecting, Lisa's idea was a hit and the posts were wildly successful.

Horatio is such a great model that the library now has over 6,000 followers on Instagram.

Now Lisa, Horatio, and the Library are all on board to stay on top of the clever task on a weekly basis.

Every week Lisa picks a new topic and gets to work. Horatio is a very patient cat.

Horatio's costumes can vary significantly from very simple to quite complex, but they're always pawesome.

Lisa has also said that Horatio isn't the biggest fan of crowds of people so he doesn't do in-person meet and greets BUT he's very easy for her to "work" with.

Lisa sincerely loves her beloved Horatio.

"He’s an 11-year-old tabby, and he’s just such a gentle soul I think. He’s just so, so sweet. I think he’s also a bit of a ham too. When we do our ‘photo shoots,’ as I like to call it, for Caturday, he really does seem to know what’s going on."

The way Lisa sees it, when “you connect with the library, you connect with literacy, and that’s our mission.”

Check out this cute video of Horatio!

Elana