More than $2,900 has been donated to Ashville Free Library’s in-house cat. Submitted photo

Ashville Free Library has received a big boost in donations for Libby the Library Cat.

The library recently began a fundraiser to help pay for the aging cat’s veterinary care. After a story on Libby was published, donations to the library poured in.

Director Kristina Benson called the community response overwhelming. As of Thursday, more than $2,900 had been raised.

The library board met for its regular meeting on the night of March 29, and at the meeting it was discussed how to manage the flood of donations.

“Now that we have been able to pay our past vet bills, we will be setting aside those donations to Libby’s ‘account’ to offset future costs for her care,” Benson said. “The donations have ensured that we are able to pay for her daily needs, as well as her medications, vet visits, lab tests, and other future needs.”

Benson reported that Libby — who has recently been suffering from a cold — is now doing much better now that she has her medicine.

“We’re monitoring her weight, because she has trouble sometimes keeping food down, but she has stopped sneezing and coughing,” Bensons said. “The donations have given us breathing room in case we need to see the vet again or make adjustments for her tummy troubles with a special diet, and so on.”

The support for Libby continues and Benson said that she is extremely grateful to the local community for their help and support. She expects to keep the GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/7ee30c71) up until sometime next week.

“The outpouring of affection for our dear Libby has been so heartwarming,” Benson said. “We’ve had folks coming in who’ve never visited our library, telling tales of cats that were important to them, and how Libby’s story in the paper touched their hearts.”

She added that situations where libraries are forced to ask for donations are unfortunate, but also a reality for many small local libraries with small budgets.

“It’s unfortunate that libraries in general are so short-funded that we have to ask for donations to help run our operations and programs, and that our budgets are so tight that something like a vet bill can overwhelm the year’s tally sheet,” Bensons said. “We are so grateful for the community support from individuals who care about having these special and unique libraries in the county.”