From a city-council meeting in White Settlement, Texas, in July 2016. The previous month, the council had voted to evict Browser, a cat who had lived in the local library for six years, because a city worker was not allowed to house her dog at City Hall.

mayor ron white: The next item is discussion of the relocation of the library cat. This last week I have received messages from around the world over this issue. The count right now is 1,394 messages, from the United States as well as Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Guam, and…