On ‘Caturday’ kids and adults read to cats at the library

Inside a conference room at the Blacksburg Public Library, several kids and their parents sat on the floor, reading to cats. One little boy cracked up as a kitten pounced on a toy.

Nearby, a girl named Mira Zeide-Horn read to a small kitten. “She’s grey and white and she’s very sweet and she likes to be picked up,” Zeide-Horn said.

Blacksburg is one of two libraries in the New River Valley with monthly events called Caturday, where kids read to cats.

Why read to cats? “Well, they’re animals too, and I love them,” Zeide-Horn explained.

Caturday also helps encourage kids to learn to read, said Alyssa Carpenter, the children’s library specialist for the Montgomery-Floyd Regional libraries.

“It’s a really wonderful program for children who are just learning to read because research shows that if children are reading to animals it helps brings down their anxiety levels, which helps them practice their reading skills, become more confident in those skills,” Carpenter said.

She came up with the idea for Caturday a few years ago, after hearing about animal shelters that were inviting children to come to the shelter and read to the cats. She knew the Montgomery Floyd Library system had a similar program with therapy dogs.

“And so I thought, well we can’t really take field trips to the animal shelter, but what if they could bring the cats to us,” Carpenter said.

Children and adults of any age can sign up for a 15 minute appointment to read to a cat. The Montgomery County Care and Adoption Center brings the cats once a month to Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The Vinton library in Roanoke County also does Caturday events.

The cats are available for adoption, so spending time with people prepares them for socializing with people.

“I’ve witnessed many cats that just sit in their crate so quietly while their being pet and listen to the stories,” Carpenter said. “And a lot of time they look at the pages with the kids and the caregivers as well. So it’s really awesome to see the cats paying attention to the stories.”