Conference misery::feline_v1

224.0. "Cat in the classroom" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Sun Mar 30 1986 11:58

Associated Press Fri 28-MAR-1986 08:40                                    

                       C Is for Cat in This Schoolroom
    
                              By STEVE GRAVELLE
                         Willmar West Central Tribune
    
    SUNBURG, Minn. (AP) - Like most schools, Sunburg Elementary has
    computers. But if you were to take a poll, the favorite learning tool
    of the pupils probably would be a big black-and-white tomcat named
    Boots. 
    
    The cat turned up at the school last fall, according to third-grade
    teacher and cat lover Elverna Johnson, and the children took an
    immediate liking to him. 
    
    First, they began sneaking cafeteria leftovers to him. Then they
    started letting him in the front door when nobody was looking. "That's
    how it started," Mrs. Johnson said. "They'd pick him up on the steps
    and bring him in." 
    
    Mrs. Johnson and her husband, Gerhard, the school's custodian, took it
    from there. The cat was neutered and given his shots and now has a home
    at the school. He is the Sunburg Elementary mascot. 
    
    Boots was "dirty, shabby - terrible, he was," Johnson recalled. Mrs.
    Johnson said Boots was "just a skinny cat." But she notes he has that
    problem licked and now weighs 12 pounds. "Now he's like Garfield," said
    Randy Braaten, one of Boots' third-grade classmates. "Like in that
    commercial - he's a fat cat." 
    
    In his boiler room home, Boots dines on three different kinds of cat
    food, with some raw meat every morning and grated cheese for
    between-meal snacks. Boots gets plenty of petting and grooming from his
    classmates. His coat is glossy and his demeanor is regal. 
    
    "There's a hot pipe down there," Johnson said, pointing to a corner of
    the boiler room. "He likes to lie in the corner." 
    
    Besides guarding the school when it's closed, Boots does a little
    exterminating at no cost to the school district. "One year I caught 32
    mice in here," Johnson said. "There's none anymore." 
    
    Mrs. Johnson says the children love Boots. "All the kids are so good to
    him, they've spoiled him," she said. Mrs. Johnson's class took time off
    from math one afternoon to show off what they've learned from Boots.
    "We shouldn't pull him by the tail," Jason Medalen said. "His backbone
    is in his tail." "They have 250 bones," Jeff Rice ventured. "If you
    pull his tail, it might hurt his back." 
    
    Other students noted some cats don't like to be picked up. "Mrs.
    Johnson took a picture of him when we took our school pictures," said
    Heather Netland. Boots' official class portrait hangs near his own
    personalized desk, where he spends most of his days dozing in the sun.
    Once in a while, he'll yawn, stretch and mosey out to the corridor to
    survey his domain. 
    
    Boots spends vacations at the Johnson home with their two cats, but
    then it's back to Sunburg Elementary. Mrs. Johnson says her students
    have learned something they might not have learned elsewhere - or from
    a computer. "I don't think there's a harsh boy or girl left in school,"
    she said.