How a library cat enjoys his fame
Max thinks film shoots, bookstore visits and many adoring fans are purrfect
Max sits on the windowsill of his St. Paul, Minn., home, staring longingly out at the street he no longer has the freedom to roam.
Since rocketing to viral fame, the orange tabby known for frequenting the Macalester College library — and then getting banned from it, Max has become an indoor cat. Paw thing.
He gazes at the street, and late at night he howls — withdrawal symptoms for his addiction to fresh air and musty old books. But on a recent winter morning, his human, Connie Lipton, took Max out of the house, strapped into a handsome red-and-black harness. She loaded him into her Mazda, with Max perched looking out the rear window, and took him to a nearby bookstore.
Max rose to national prominence last month after a cutesy sign appeared at the Macalester library that warned people not to let him in. Max had previously been spotted on security cameras, roaming the stacks. More than 200,000 people “liked” a Twitter post about the library sign, and Max’s own Instagram (managed by Lipton) blew up to 16,500 followers.
It came out that Max was something of a campus celebrity. In addition to the library, he’d been visiting students in the science building, language buildings and dormitories on the other side of campus. He even had a private audience with the Macalester president, which was captured on film, of course.
But a construction project near his house, and an allergic library worker, made Max’s free-range travels no longer feasible.
While not everyone agreed that a cat should have been allowed into any building he desired, one local business made its allegiance known. In the days after Max went famous, Hal Johnson, who owns the Against the Current used-book store, drew “Welcome Max” on the chalkboard outside his Grand Avenue shop.
That’s where Lipton took Max, who was met by an entourage of Macalester groupies who had gotten to know him on his formerly untethered neighbourhood outings.
The curious kitty wasted no time making himself at home. He climbed up into the window display, sniffed a book on “Americans From Norway” and nibbled on a lantern. Lipton whipped out a book of her own, “On Cats,” by Doris Lessing, which Max dutifully rubbed his face on.
Macalester student Ming Lian filmed the encounter, and the video will become part of a YouTube series on Max’s visits to Twin Cities bookstores and libraries.