Published Oct 4, 2025
Jen Hallaman / Loganberrybooks.com
I walk into the bright, colorful, green and purple storefront of Loganberry Books in the Cleveland area and make a beeline for the back room called The Sanctuary, where a beautiful white cat named Alice curls up on her green throne surrounded by old books and awaits my visit.
Alice – the second beloved feline mascot at the popular indie bookstore in Shaker Heights, Ohio – sits there in her pure white beauty, looking like an angel as shoppers stop to ooh and ahh over the cat. I roll up to her and reach out my hand to Alice, who happily accepts my head scratches. Alice rubs her head against my hand in approval, and kneads her paws in the air as she stirs from her afternoon nap and meows.
“Oh boy!” a customer says as he walks in and spots the resident cat sitting there.
“Aaawww,” a woman says while shopping. “Does she like pets? Hi, sweetheart!”
Alice – who is not deaf, like many white cats are – is named after the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. That’s the guy who is late for a very important date, but mellow Alice isn’t in any hurry. Curiouser and curiouser! She lives at the home of Harriett Logan, Loganberry’s proprietor, along with a black cat named Zora. Harriett brings Alice to work with her most days, although Alice isn’t crazy about the carrier.
Alice replaced Otis, a gray and white cat who spent nearly a decade and a half as the Loganberry mascot. Otis retired in 2022 and died in 2024 at age 17. Alice, who was rescued and came from a foster home, came to Loganberry before Otis retired, and the younger cat was groomed to step up into his role.
Jen Hallaman / Loganberrybooks.com
Jen Hallaman / Loganberrybooks.com
Otis had served as the Loganberry Books mascot for 14 years, starting in 2008, after he showed up at Harriett’s home when he was just a few months old. The Cat Distribution System seemed to send the stray kitten to Harriett, who joked that he asked her for a job. Otis developed a big base of fans, some of whom would look for Otis before browsing books as shoppers. Shoppers often come mainly to visit Alice, too!
Otis remains on the staff page of Loganberry Books, with this adorable bio: “Otis joined us in the spring of 2008. Harriett was leaving for work when all of a sudden a very loud grey-and-white kitten appeared and demanded a job in book sales. He was very persuasive and Harriett decided to offer him a position. And that is how Loganberry Books became “the bookstore with the cat.”
Jen Hallaman / Loganberrybooks.com
At the bottom of the staff page, the staff added Alice’s bio and identified her as the manager. “Alice learned the book trade under the watchful tutelage of Otis. … Although she is officially our general manager she only makes in-shop appearances on occasion, preferring a respectful paws-off approach. When here, she is an energetic presence, even when napping.”
Both Alice and Otis make wonderful bookstore cats because they are friendly and especially tolerant cats – but, Harriett says, the two still are quite different purrsonalitywise. Otis was more gregarious, extroverted, and constantly on the move, while Alice is a bit more introverted and laid back.
“Otis was the master of ceremonies here; he walked like he owned the joint, and he made sure he checked in with everybody and told them what to do,” Harriett says.
As for Alice, the 6-year-old cat is active for about the first two hours after arriving at Loganberry with Harriett. Then, she settles down onto her throne like a queen, and lets people come to her.
Jen Hallaman / Loganberrybooks.com
“Which is convenient, because you know exactly where she is,” Harriett says. “Customers can go pet her. She stays in one place the whole afternoon.”
When Alice needs privacy, she can go to the restroom where her litter box is located, or hide on a box under a desk near her throne. Harriett says Alice has an independent spirit.
“She definitely dances to her own drummer,” Harriett says. “She does what she wants when she wants. I guess all cats do.”
Sarah Lohman – the Cleveland author of books including Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods – took in Alice as her very first foster cat back in November of 2020. Alice came to her as Nutmeg, but Sarah called her Snow Day because of a big snowstorm in Cleveland the day Alice came to her. Alice and Sarah’s orange tabby cat, Paddy, played well together, and Sarah loved her white foster, who was loving, sweet and gentle.
Sarah’s friend, who works at Loganberry, saw one of Sarah’s Instagram posts about her white foster cat and showed it to Harriett, who fell in love. Since Otis was going to retire and Loganberry was looking for a new shop cat, Sarah brought “Snow Day” to hang out in the store.
“I thought she was so outgoing that she was gonna be a perfect shop cat,” Sarah says in an email. “I took her by for a meet and greet and ran some errands while she hung out in the store. And when I came to pick her up, she was clearly having the time of her life.”
Sarah, who now lives in Las Vegas, is so proud of her baby girl in her celebrity life. She is surprised that the petite Alice didn’t get any bigger; she is a small cat.
Harriett says that Alice is so popular among Loganberry customers that the store hangs a sign by the entrance indicating whether Alice is in or out.
“She seems to know it’s her job to be friendly and get petted,” Harriett says about Alice.
Customers have a proprietary sentiment toward Alice, Harriett says.
“They think it’s their cat,” she says. “They all have connections with the Loganberry cat.”
