HAYSVILLE ? In more than 20 years as cat-in-residence at the Haysville Community Library, Libby Libra survived being run over, a catnapping, a tornado and 10 days shut up in an abandoned wing of the old library building.

But after a siege of bad health due to persistent thyroid problems, library officials had the cat euthanized last Friday.

Libby was abandoned outside the library as a kitten in April 1983, when she was thrown from a car.

“Somebody brought her in to clean up and we just kept her,” said library director Betty Cattrell.

Libby liked to eat banana bread, sip spring water from library staff member’s cups, tiptoe across their keyboards, and greet library patrons.

In 1990, Libby was run over by a car while sunbathing in the library parking lot, and two years later somebody took her from the library. She was gone for more than two weeks before escaping and returning in the midst of a hailstorm.

“There wasn’t any part of her body that wasn’t bruised,” Cattrell said.

In May 1999 Libby was in the library when a tornado destroyed much of downtown Haysville, damaging part of the building and its roof.

But, Cattrell said, Libby Libra was a cat who simply focused on her duties.

Haysville Community Library officials had Libby Libra, cat-in-residence at the library, euthanized Friday because of bad health due to thyroid problems. Libby, shown in February 2002, was abandoned outside the library as a kitten in April 1983.

“She took her job as greeter seriously,” Cattrell said.

The cat gained some renown, being featured two years ago in a book entitled “The Kingdom of the Cat” by British author Roni Jay.