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Ernie Hemingway greets customers at Dorian Books
YOUNGSTOWN
Ernest Hemingway occupies his place of honor on a table top in the center of Dorian Books, a used bookstore at 802 Elm St.
Ernest is not a likeness of the famous novelist and short-story writer.
Affectionately known as Ernie, he’s a 28-pound Maine coon cat adopted from a Columbus animal shelter, who fawns for the attention of arriving bookstore customers.
“He loves people. He cries for attention all the time,” said Jack Peterson, bookstore co-owner. “All he wants is people to pet him.”
The long-haired, green-eyed Ernie, who is 8 years old, meows to customers who fail to pet him and purrs loudly after they oblige.
“They’re just big cats,” Peterson said of Maine coons. “Ernie is a little overweight, but he’s not that much. He’s just a big cat. I’ve never seen a cat bigger than him.”
“Maine coons — their personalities are always pretty laid back. He’s not going to bite people,” Peterson said of Ernie.
Having been dropped off at the Capitol Area Humane Society by owners who said they could no longer keep him because they were losing their home, Ernie is part of a long-standing tradition, in which used bookstores have a resident cat.
A volunteer at the Columbus area shelter is the daughter of a Dorian customer, who suggested Ernie would be a good fit for the bookstore, Peterson said.
“He was such a filthy matted mess when he came in, but he had beautiful eyes and a great disposition, so everyone was in love with him from the very beginning,” recalled Mary Hiser, development and communications manager for the Hilliard-based humane society.
The shelter removed excess fur from Ernie, bathed him, treated him for fleas, cleaned his teeth and biopsied a lump of scar tissue removed from his neck. The lump proved to be benign.
Ernie, who has light brown and white hair, has the run of Dorian Books, one of the region’s few used bookstores, and of the adjoining Full Circle florist’s shop, and of the building’s basement.
The giant cat enthusiastically greeted more than 60 customers on a recent Saturday, on which an Internet-organized cash mob bestowed its business on the locally-owned bookstore, which has been in operation since 1998.
“Ernie responded like the star that he is. He just loved all of the attention. Everybody just made a big deal out of him,” Peterson said.
The big feline, who has dominated the store since his November 2010 arrival in a dog-carrier, also enthusiastically greets people attending Music at Madison programs, which take place in the store by reservation at 8 p.m. every third Saturday of the month.
The book and flower shops, which are co-owned by Peterson and Rodd Coonce, are at Madison Avenue and Elm Street on the northern fringe of the Youngstown State University campus.
Those wishing to meet Ernie and patronize the bookstore may do so from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
“We’re here to stay, and we’re here because we believe in Youngstown,” Peterson said. “We believe in the North Side, and we are, one person at a time, making people realize that this is a perfectly safe and good place to be, to live and to work.”