I like cats and that’s probably a pre-requisite for reading “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” by Vicki Myron. It would also help if you like libraries. Liking small towns is optional.Dewey’s story begins almost like a cheesy romance novel. The librarian comes in after a bitterly cold weekend in a remote town in Iowa. The bookdrop is overflowing with books and includes one tiny, shivering kitten with frostbite on his paws from spending the night (or longer) crouched on the freezing metal.

If your attention isn’t caught by now, don’t bother reading this book. What surprised me was how incredibly sad it was. I like a sob book as much as anyone (“A Walk to Remember” and “Tuesdays with Morrie” being some of my favorites). But “Dewey” has a lot of pain and loss written into it. While it’s a memoir of Dewey, it’s at least in part a memoir of Myron as well.

My favorite work of dog/cat related non-fiction is definitely “The Cruelest Miles” about the race to deliver the diptheria vaccine to children in Alaska. It’s something of an unfair comparison. Dewey wasn’t trying to save lives, and yet he did touch a number of them.

Want to read more about Dewey? You can skip to how the story ends by reading this article.