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Beloved Picton pet passes away as community, owner mourn

By  Ashliegh Gehl

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Miss Lily lazes on the counter at Books & Company in Picton. She died Nov. 23 of diabetes. Photo by Ashliegh Gehl.

The scratches in Books & Company’s countertop isn’t the only place Miss Lily left her mark.

As the bookstore’s live-in ginger cat, she was a permanent fixture in the storefront window, admired by passersby trotting down Picton’s Main St.

One minute she would be perched next to the cash register waiting for kibble and in the next, interrupting an author mid-way a book reading.

Shortly after Margaret Atwood was in the store on Nov. 23, fundraising for Al Purdy’s A-Frame house, Lily died of diabetes. She was nearly 12 years old.

Before moving into the bookstore, she lived wildly as a stray, finding comfort in handouts from friendly neighbours. When Alexandra Bake, owner of Books & Company, lost her cat Olivia on Christmas Eve more than eight years ago, a woman came to her saying she had the perfect cat.

“To be honest, if I had to pick a cat, it wouldn’t have been Lily because she was not happy and didn’t seem to register well in the shelter at all. But she was the cat that was chosen for me,” said Bake.

A disgruntled Lily eventually became a great lover of people. She would stretch on the hardcovers of art books and rest on her favourite daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

Even though she was very miss-ish, she was also mischievous. Addicted to Temptations, she learned how to open the drawer her treats were in and fish them out at leisure.

“When we realized that she wasn’t eating anything but Temptations we weaned her off them,” said Bake. “She was very cross at with me for a long time.”

On a rare occasion, when the drawer of bottomless treats ran empty, Lily was not pleased.

“One of the staff members said she had a bruise on her arm from where Lily kept hitting it,” said Bake. “I had run out of treats and there wasn’t any in the drawer for her. She didn’t believe us of course. How could you not give Miss Lily treats! She would open the drawer and not see anything there, so she would hit the employee on the arm. She swore by the end of that day she had a bruise.”

Even though Lily was a bit of a diva about her treats, she appointed herself as a representative of the Loyalist Humane Society.

“She’d lay on the cash register and point to the jar and say, ‘That’s where I came from. Help them,’” said Bake.

For Bake, life without Miss Lily gets harder every day.

“At first I just used to think, you know, Lily’s not here but it’s the every morning, when she’s not here to greet you,” Bake said tearfully. “I’ve never owned a bookstore without her.”

Skye Beaumont, a barista at Miss Lily’s Café, got to know a different side of Lily.

Even though she was the face of the café, putting one paw on the black and white tiled flooring was a faux pas. But when Bake was away, like any respectable teenager, Lily would play.

“It would usually take two or three days for Lily to start to realize that Alexandra wasn’t here and she would start to act like a surly teenage. Like, ‘You’re not my real mom, you can’t tell me what to do,’” said Beaumont.

And into the café Lily would go, rebelliously to the window.

When Rachel Brady practiced pilates above Books & Company, Lily and Brady became instant friends.

“After a while she would know Tuesday and Thursday mornings to wait at the bottom of the stairs, because that’s when I would arrive. She would come and greet me with purrs,” said Brady.

Those morning meetings at the door evolved into a grooming session. Lily would roll on her back with her feet in the air, enjoying a full-body massage.

To commemorate Miss Lily’s life, Books & Company is creating a collage and is looking for photographs. If you have photographs, phone the bookstore at: 613-476-3037.