You couldn’t duplicate Dewey, there’s no replacing him. He was like a best friend who got me through everything. “If I hadn’t had Dewey my life would have been much harder and lonelier. “He’s very loving but, although he’s wonderful, he isn’t the same as Dewey. “He looks a lot like Dewey but has a totally different personality,” adds Vicki. The library didn’t want another cat so Vicki and Glenn have taken in the kitten and called him Page Turner. Found on the street, his fur was covered in ice. Just before Christmas there was another surprise when someone in Spencer turned up at the library with a ginger kitten with green eyes. “Every day with Dewey there was a new surprise and Glenn is one of Dewey’s surprises. The one thing that hasn’t changed since Dewey’s death is his magic. “It’s over a year now and we’re living together but we’re going to wait a couple of years to get married because we’re travelling so much on book tours.Īfter I got divorced I dated men but I wasn’t really looking for anyone in my life. “He asked me to dance one night and his eyes were so kind and trusting, like Dewey’s, that we’ve been together ever since and are now engaged,” she says. After another bout of prolonged illness while she was writing Dewey’s biography, Vicki took up rock ’n’ roll dancing and met a man called Glenn Albertson, 64. Meanwhile, life has taken a couple of unexpected turns for Vicki, who has now retired from the library. There were TV news bulletins, obituaries in 270 newspapers, more than 1,000 e-mails, a pile of letters and cards reaching four feet high and gifts, flowers and messages from around the world. Vicki took the heartbreaking decision to have her beloved cat put down.Īfterwards, in mourning, it took her days to realise how far the news of his death had spread. One morning in November 2006, Dewey started to act strangely and the vet found he had an aggressive stomach tumour. He continued to attend the weekly classes, sitting on laps and curling up on legs, right up to the morning before his death 19 years after his arrival.īy that time his vibrant orange coat had faded and his gait was unsteady. Afterwards, they found if they were too noisy he walked out. Right from the start Dewey had taken part in the library’s weekly story hour for local schoolchildren with special needs.

Dewey there's a cat in the library