The Bookstore Cat

"The Bookstore Cat"

On a recent trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama my family and I took a detour into the town of Fairhope. This is the place that Southern author Sonny Brewer (The Poet of Tolstoy Park, The Widow and the Tree, Don't Quit Your Day Job) calls home. It is also the home of The Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, a writer's colony that has played an integral part in the writing lives of authors Winston Groom, WEB Griffin, and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg. 

Unfortunately Over the Transom book store, the shop that Sonny owns, was closed on Sundays. So before heading over to the Page and Palette book store, I hopped out of the car to take some photos of the little white book mecca that draws so many people to this quaint coastal community. There were no people around...apparently, like most Southern small towns, the city rolls up its streets on Sundays. Just as I walked up the sidewalk, camera in hand, I was greeted by a gentle Calico cat that had a lot to say. I have never heard a cat "talk" quite the same way as this one did. It was fascinating and was almost as if he or she (I didn't bother to do an anatomy check) was letting me know that the book store was closed and that I could come back on Tuesday. I said hi to the little kitty and as I kept strolling along the sidewalk, it scampered along side me, chatting like we had been friends for years and years. Or maybe he was telling me what titles were available in the fiction section inside Over the Transom. I patted its belly a few times and I was certain that it would have jumped in the car and kept right on gabbing had I not outrun it. I don't know who the cat belonged to, however the business beside the book store had a food and water dish near its door. I just refer to it as "The Bookstore Cat".