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Meet the Cats
Bookstores and cats seem to go together, and if you travel around the country, you’ll find plenty of paws among the paperbacks. Fodor’s includes a travel guide on its website to bookstores with cats. There’s a coffee-table book, Bookstore Cats, featuring Emma and Ender, and Bob Newhart Cat himself was featured on a button campaign a few years back celebrating the link between felines and fiction.
“Cats have had a long history in bookstores, dating back to the 19th century, and I think there’s a connection with the personality and vibe that you get from a cat. The luxuriousness of having an infinite amount of time to do what you want to do, to sit down with a book without being disturbed, is exactly the feeling that a cat exudes as well.” -Eric Johnson
Emma
Emma is the iconic San Jose store cat and a customer favorite. She was adopted alongside Ender in 2010 and has been immortalized in the pages of two books, as well as countless periodicals. Sometimes it takes some searching, but Emma can usually be found in one of her various cozy spots or be heard meowing for pets and attention. She loves finding chairs and stools to perch on waiting for customers to notice her ultra soft, shiny fur coat. And if you don't give her enough attention, she'll definitely let you know! She's one sassy gal.
Ender
Ender was a sweet, good boy. He was larger than life, though a bit anxious! After being adopted alongside Emma in 2010, he would often hide behind the front counter and hang with the staff, but on the rare occasion you could spot him, he'd be crunching numbers on the front calculator, sleeping up in the cat walk, or eating his favorite treats. One of Ender's favorite activities was making a nest in a box of packing materials and sometimes we'd go hours without seeing him, before he'd pop his sleepy head out for dinner. We said goodbye to his quiet little meow in late 2024.
Zenda
Zenda (along with Gertie) was the resident cat at Recycle Bookstore when original owner Joan Hayes sold to Eric Johnson. Zenda was completely chill and had the calm indifference of a typical cat. He was not indifferent to pets on his terms, treats, and balls of string, though! He also loved being picked up in the mornings to help find many internet book sales while draped across the owner's shoulder. As Zenda got older, he retired to a slower paced antique store in North Carolina, where he lived out his days with a former employee and (to everyone's surprise) became a very efficient mouser at the age of 17!
Gertie
Gertie (along with Zenda) was the resident cat at Recycle Bookstore when original owner Joan Hayes sold to Eric Johnson. Gertie was a plump, bad-tempered grey Persian whose only pleasures in life were getting pets, as she lay on the chests of employees on the floor (thanking them by hissing as she jumped off) and swatting at customers who dared think they could invade her personal space. She was so ornery we had to take her to the vet and have her knocked out just to trim her long hair which was too big to groom properly. But she had her devotees, as all grumpy divas do, who would celebrate being able to pet her for five minutes before they were unkindly dismissed with a hearty hiss that would make the cats in Pet Cemetery proud.
Max
Max, the Campbell store cat, was a handsome, photogenic fella and followed in a long line of store favorites, before we said goodbye in early 2025. Customers would often marvel at his custom-built catio where he could usually be seen lounging in the sun. When he wasn't lounging, Max was always dutifully watching the front desk or making sure everyone was following the store rules. But sometimes you might catch him playing with loose strips of paper! Whenever anyone asked for the boss, we knew it meant Max and if you heard his collar bell he was never too far!
Bob Newhart Cat
One day a cat was found by the manager of Recycle Campbell wandering in a store in Gilroy that was having a pet fair. Bob (as he would come to be known) had been returned a couple of times because he didn’t get along with other pets, but he found a home amongst the stacks of books. With his big gorgeous personality and inquisitive eyes, Bob was known to climb up both ladders, as well as into visitor's hearts. He was the subject of many articles and travel blogs, ushering in the era of social media for Recycle Bookstore. When Bob passed in the summer of 2018, it was city-wide news- rightfully so!
ISBN
From winning the Publisher’s Weekly award for Best-Named Bookstore Cat to finding his photograph in many local papers, ISBN was just about the perfect cat. ISBN (yes, like the book) had been a huge part of Recycle Campbell's initial success, helping us grow from our first small store to the larger, current location at the corners of 1st Street and Campbell Ave. He worked hard posing in the sunny window to attract customers, letting overzealous children pet him, and patrolling the store to make sure customers were being helped. After his retirement from the bookstore in early 2010, ISBN got to sit in people’s laps (something he always wanted to do more of in the store, but it would get so busy!), as well as on the softest couches, if he wasn't sunning himself outside near his new pool. What a life these cats lead!