In fiction or real life, the cats at one Houston-area bookstore are heroes.
Book Ends, located in Lake Jackson, Texas, is planning to publish a childrens book that lionizes the stores cats, according to The Facts newspaper. The irreverent tale, Fia and the Book Ends Bandits, was written by three students as part of a class project.
Bookstore owner Becky Dorrah says that she hopes to sell 1,000 copies of the book at $10 each, and will donate the proceeds ($10,000) to the Brazoria County SPCA.
But the store first had to cover the cost of printing, so it sought donations from neighborhood cat lovers and store patrons to pay the printer $1,600. It reached that goal on Jan. 13, The Facts reported.
Telling how Fia, short for Ophelia, fends off two larcenous raccoons that want to claim the bookstore territory as their own, the book was written two years ago by students in a creative writing class at Brazoswood High School. The efforts to have it published began last year, when a new partner joined the bookstore and persuaded a friend to illustrate the story, according to The Facts.
For more information, see the Book Ends website.
Posted: Jan. 19, 2006, 5 a.m. EST