For those of you who were interested in the last thread about museum
mascots, here's an update on ours--albeit a few weeks old.   This article
was in the Cedar Rapids "Gazette",  but I heard that the AP and NPR also
picked up the story--slow news day, I guess!

>>
West Branch--A small rock, carrying the words, "Herbie the Cat,
1977-1997," has replaced the miniature cottage where Herbie lived his
long life.

Herbie, who greeted visitors to the Herbert Hoover Presidential
Library-Museum for more than 18 years, finally ran out of lives.  He was
put to sleep June 30.

"We thought it was best because of the heat and humidity," says Floyd
Christensen.  Herbie, who was more than 90 in cat years, was in pain
and on various medications.

"He was suffering, " said Christensen, the guard who rescued Herbie
from the wild on a rainy night in November 1978.  Christensen also built
the replica of the Herbert Hoover birthplace cottage that became Herbie's
home.

Through the years, Herbie greeted visitors and gained immense
popularity.  He once became a gossip item in the "National Enquirer" and
was featured in the "Gazette" just last April 22.  At that time, Christensen
voiced concern about Herbie being able to live through another Iowa
summer.

Nobody knows how many of a cat's nine lives Herbie lived.  But, as far
as Christensen knows, he had a close call when people tried to kidnap
him, and survived several medical problems.

Now that Herbie is gone, the house has been removed.  It will be cleaned
and repainted and used in a museum exhibit planned for this winter.  In
the cottage's place stands a rock that Christensen found and cleaned up.
 He used a black marker to write "Herbie the Cat, 1977-1997," even
though he isn't sure when Herbie was born.  And he added a paw print.

Herbie has been cremated and his ashes will be scattered somewhere
on the grounds as long as the National Park Service gives it's approval.
There probably will not be a ceremony.

But the question that Christensen and others at the library can expect to
hear now is, "Will you get another cat?"

"I don't know," Christensen says.  "I don't think we'll go out and look for
another one.  But if one would stray in, we'd probably take care of it."

>>end>>

I asked Floyd this morning whether he'd take a cat who had a little help
wandering in--like being dropped off by a car--and he said that was fine
with him.  So, if anybody's near exit 254 on I-80 in Iowa and has a cat
they want to get rid of, we're just a half mile north of the Interstate!

Chris.

Christine Mouw
Assistant Curator
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum
West Branch, Iowa  52358
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