It’s always exciting to see a hometown hero in the news. I refer of course to Owen, seen here in a file photo from December:
Owen works at local favorite Aardvark Books*. He’s great, and so is his store. So imagine my squees of joy when I saw that he’d been written up as part of a feature on local bookstore cats!
Aardvark Books is a spacious emporium selling new and secondhand books, cards, and newspapers in San Francisco’s Castro District. The store’s mascot Owen has been a fixture there for 12 years.
“Owen’s the real boss around here,” says Aardvark employee David. You can usually find him on his favorite chair in the Myth & Folklore section.
If Owen was an author, he’d be Christopher Isherwood, says Aardvark employee Frieda, because he’s “loving, kind, pragmatic and takes life as it comes. Nothing really seems to upset him.”
There are eight more Bay Area bookstore managers pictured in the article. I was happy to see it included Hudson the sphinx over at Borderlands, the local sci-fi/fantasy/etc. emporium. But Owen is my main squeeze in this category (possibly because he has fur and is therefore more pleasing to squeeze).
Why so many bookstore cats?
Recycle employee Eric says that owners used to dread rats chewing the pages of their books so would bring in cats “as a practical way to keep the rats away, a tradition that never really left.”
Samwise serves a similar role, eating the silverfish that might otherwise gnaw at my book bindings. But I won’t be sharing a picture–Owen’s the real star today. Open thread!
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*Aardvark may be forced to close soon, after almost forty years in operation, since the building is on the market and will be delivered to the buyer empty. This will add another vacant commercial space to a neighborhood already littered with them. (The restaurant space next door allegedly has a new business coming in soon… after more than three years.)
Dmbeaster
Its a pathetic aspect of Bay Area real estate that speculators can make money even while shuttering buildings with small retail establishments.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Well I can see why you’re moving. Owen is giving you the cold shoulder from the looks of that picture. What a terrible manager! :)
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I would be grumpy too if people kept coming in and taking my stuff!
The Dangerman
More Orange Tabby, less (please) Orange Crabby.
ETA: Any Angeleno’s recall Either O Bookstore in Heremosa? They had a couple cool cats. Met Ron Kovic (Born On The 4th Of July) there. Well, I didn’t really meet him, he was in the company of multiple beauties (not cats). Either Or ain’t there no more.
Mike J
@Dmbeaster: Property tax laws are in serious need of rewriting if leaving a building empty is better than accepting a lower rate.
Why not assess the value of the building based on the rate they’re asking for rent, not what an empty building is worth? And then make sure the rate on that value convinces the owner that letting the space is in their best interests.
Treat the landlords of vacancies the way an Alabama Republican would treat the unemployed.
Mike in NC
10 years ago we had a beautiful orange cat we named Jefferson, since we lived in Virginia then.
NotMax
When you’re in NYC, if you haven’t already, stop by the Strand.
“18 miles of books”
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: why I got a book there last year! ?
Emerald
@The Dangerman:
Sigh. I grew up in Hermosa Beach, and shopped at the Either/Or. But now it’s gone. Another reason never to return.
The Hermosa Beach of the 60s will live in my brain. I preserve it there, and have no desire to update the images.
Mnemosyne
Here in the San Fernando Valley, the best place to get your cat and book fix at the same time is the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood. Last time I was there, one of their cats was sprawled by the back door to greet customers as they entered with the traditional cat greeting of a contemptuous stare followed by looking away and yawning.
The Dangerman
@Emerald:
I found a cool article on Either Or through the Mighty Google; a fun read. I remember Justice well (although I couldn’t pull her name out of my head).
I loved Hermosa; played a LOT of Volleyball there (if you live at the beach and you are 6-7, you play volleyball). In the last 27 years, I’ve probably been there an amount of time measured in minutes. Sad. It was a wonderful, wonderful place. I wonder if Ron Kovic still hangs out at (cough, cough, he might not want people to know and, for all I know, THAT place doesn’t exist, either).
Mnemosyne
Also, too, if you should ever find yourself in Hanapepe on the island of Kaua’i, Talk Story Bookstore is a fine establishment with resident cats.
Origuy
Recycle Bookstore in Campbell, CA used to have a cat named Isbn, possibly the best name ever for a bookstore cat.
Mike in NC
@Emerald: Hermosa Beach just got featured on some network food show. Maybe one of the Gordon Ramsey programs.
Mary G
@bodegacats is a good Twitter follow.
Major Major Major Major
@Origuy: Recycle’s current two cats Emma and Ender are in the article.
The Dangerman
@Mike in NC:
If I had to guess, it’s the Vegan place down just off The Strand. It’s supposed to be VERY good. Never been there.
SoupCatcher
@Major Major Major Major: There are two Recycle’s in the south bay (both awesome in their own way): San Jose and Campbell. The cats are at the one on The Alameda.
Major Major Major Major
@SoupCatcher: ohh.
L85NJGT
they’re digging for gold in my neighborhood
for what they say is the greater good
but all I see is a long goodbye
a requiem for a skyline…
Ben Gibbard rapping over a Yoko sample
frosty
@Emerald: Is Bill’s TacoBurrito Headquarters still there? I had friends in Hermosa in the early 70s, we all loved the place. Been back to SoCal a few times in the last 20 years but haven’t gotten back to the West Side.
frosty
@NotMax: I love the Strand, It’s been way too many years since I’ve been there. The half price critic’s review copies of new releases is the ultimate bargain.
Pete Downunder
Shakespeare & Co in Paris (great eclectic English language bookstore) has a resident cat. The rules are to let it come to you. Mrs Down Under is the animal whisperer and as soon as she sat down the cat was purring on her lap. No idea of the cat’s name.
Pangloss
There was a bar in Wicker Park in the late 80s/early 90s called The Lizard Lounge. In 1995 it became Club Foot.
Pangloss
@Pangloss:
Anyway, Lizard Lounge had a bar cat.
raven
@Emerald: It was such a wonderful store!
debbie
Any creature who can be compared to Isherwood has got to be great!
mad citizen
I’ve been in Aardvark several times visiting, but never saw the cat that I can remember. But I’m in other sections than folklore. Thanks for the post, sorry to hear the store may be closing. At a local library book sale area, there is a Seinfeld pic with this quote: ““A bookstore is one of the only pieces of physical evidence we have that people are still thinking.”
Annie
I love Aardvark — I found it when I moved to San Francisco in the early 1980s — and I will miss it a lot.
El Cruzado
@SoupCatcher: There’s also a (single) cat at their Campbell location, forgot the name but will be friendly… sometimes (most of the time is napping away from the people).
California Stars
I’ve skritched those marmalade ears before. I love Aardvark books and still have $$ in credit there. Used to take my kiddo when they were a toddler and sit in the corner in the back reading through the small but amazing kids section and waiting for Owen to make an appearance. One of the few cool places in SF where I actually felt welcome with my kid and where my kid would settle down for a minute and not do anything to make us unwelcome X-D. Sad to hear that the building’s on the market. Yeah, the restaurant space next to it is in such a good location but nothing. Sigh….San Francisco….