Meet Hobbes, the latest addition to one Fort Collins bookstore's long line of shop cats

Sitting behind the counter of her west Fort Collins bookstore, Cynthia Manuel peered up from a box of old photographs when I walked in on a recent Thursday. Manuel's 6-month-old kitten, Hobbes, on the other hand, didn't budge.

The little orange cat was curled up for his mid-morning nap, which Manuel said has become part of his daily routine since she adopted Hobbes and started bringing him into The Eclectic Reader late last year.

Together, they are the shop's oldest and youngest employees.

Manuel, 76, has been selling books in Fort Collins for more than 40 years — starting in 1983 when she opened her first store, Toad Hall Books, at 147 W. Oak St. The photos in her lap showed as much.

There are snapshots of Manuel and her sister, Laura, standing behind its front counter. There are a few of Toad Hall's quaint storefront on Oak Street and even more of Nissa, a little tortoiseshell cat Manuel got shortly after opening the shop.

“I have almost always had bookstore kitties," she said, detailing the seven moves her shop has undergone through the years and the bookstore cats that came along for the ride.

There was Nissa, of course, and the unnamed pregnant cat who briefly called Toad Hall Books home — and gave birth to her litter there — when it was located at 140 S. College Ave.

Later, there was the much-beloved Monty and, after him, the reclusive Nina. Now, enter Hobbes — arguably the last in a long line of Manuel's bookstore cats.

After 40 years of book dealing in Northern Colorado, Manuel said she is likely a few years away from retiring. Still, she wanted her cozy shop, which is filled with roughly 20,000 used books and dotted with plants, to have a bookstore cat once again.

"Not only do I love cats — and I’ve had cats my whole life — but they just seem to belong in a bookstore," Manuel explained. "They’re quiet companions and generally not obtrusive, but that's not always the case."

A long line of bookstore cats

After opening Toad Hall Books in 1983 and shuffling it around to different Old Town locations, Manuel closed the shop in 1989 and pivoted to selling books at flea markets and out of her home. She tried her hand at online bookselling in the 1990s, renaming the operation The Eclectic Reader in the process.

In 2011, she reopened The Eclectic Reader as a physical shop near Taft Hill Road and West Elizabeth Street. A year later, while on the hunt for a cat for the shop, she came across Monty.

Meanwhile in Windsor: A historic town landmark is being sold. Here's what we know about its history, future.

The sweet, 6-year-old orange cat was one of many animals up for adoption at Larimer Humane Society, now NoCo Humane, when the shelter was looking to clear space for pets displaced by the High Park Fire in the summer of 2012, Manuel recalled.

“I have no idea why someone would give up such a wonderful cat, but there he was," Manuel said.

She quickly adopted him and named him Montag, or Monty, after "Fahrenheit 451" protagonist Guy Montag. He came along when Manuel moved The Eclectic Reader one last time to its current location at 1119 W. Drake Road.

There, photos show Monty lounging on the store's front counter and cuddling with customers.

He enjoyed car rides and easily traveled with Manuel every morning and evening as they clocked in and out at The Eclectic Reader.

He loved children and let them tug mercilessly on his fiery orange fur without objection. He was interested in not just the people who wandered into the shop, but also the odd dog, too.

When Monty needed expensive dental surgery in 2019, Eclectic Reader customers rallied around him and left donations in a "tooth fairy fund" jar Manuel placed on the shop's front counter.

"He was honestly the greatest bookstore cat there ever could have been," Manuel said.

When Monty died in 2021, The Eclectic Reader felt a bit emptier.

Manuel hoped her other cat, Nina, could fill the void, but Nina had no interest in The Eclectic Reader clientele and largely kept to herself. She ultimately retired from bookstore life after two years and returned to live at Manuel's home full time, Manuel said.

Fort Collins history: Do you recognize these local sites on the National Register of Historic Places?

Eventually, Manuel was ready to try again. She perused shelter cats and got close to adopting at least one but didn't.

Then, during a visit to Northern Colorado Feeders Supply last year, she heard about a litter of kittens that had just been born on a farm. There were three black females and a little orange male, just like Monty.

"There he was," Manuel said about the tiny kitten, which she brought home and quickly named Hobbes after the popular "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip.

Manuel first brought Hobbes into The Eclectic Reader after adopting him in November. Back then, he was 10 weeks old and so small she could hold him in both hands. Now, he's nearly tripled in size and has challenged the normal peace of the little bookstore.

When Manuel and I first spoke over the phone in early January, she described Hobbes as very much still in his "toddler phase."

If he was awake, he was playing, she explained. Each day, he learned something new — like how if you jump directly through a display table, its array of arranged books will fly off.

He would hide behind books, with just his two little orange ears poking up to give him away. When he got too close to the shop door or bit one of Manuel's many plants, he would get a surprise squirt of water from her spray bottle.

Now, nearly two months later, Hobbes is solidly in his "teenage" phase, Manuel says.

The spray bottle that once kept him in line no longer seems to have any effect. He's resistant, hyperactive and still learning how to play gently — though that may soon be tempered since he recently got neutered, Manuel said.

Still, he's a good traveler and enjoys his daily drives to work with Manuel, she said. And in a relatively new twist, Hobbes has started showing an interest in The Eclectic Reader's customers — something his predecessor Nina never did.

Weeks ago, when Alex Sukach walked into The Eclectic Reader and met Hobbes for the first time, he said the little kitten made a beeline for him, climbed on him and "started purring like a lawnmower."

"How has he been this morning?" Sukach asked Manuel as she readied an order of, fittingly, "Calvin and Hobbes" books he had ordered.

"He was naughty," Manuel replied. "So, that means he's been pretty normal."

Besides their orange coloring, Manuel said Hobbes and Monty don't have many traits in common.

Where Monty was calm, Hobbes is excitable. Where Monty was a peaceful presence, Hobbes is a bull in a china shop or, more appropriately, kitten in a bookstore — scaling its shelves, nibbling its plants and pouncing out from behind its varying book displays.

"Monty had such patience and tolerance, and I don’t think Hobbes is going to have that," Manuel said.

Still, Manuel said Hobbes may have what it takes to be a bookstore cat.

"Time will tell," she said as the little kitten snoozed next to her.

And, if there's anything Hobbes has, it's time.

He's only a teenager, after all.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Meet Hobbes, the newest in a long line of Fort Collins bookstore cats