Residing & Loving Museum Life

It’s not unusual for guests exploring the Kruger Avenue Toy and Prepare Museum in West Virginia to imagine they’re taking a look at a cute, fuzzy, toy cat once they see Bathroom sleeping or sitting nonetheless among the many classic playthings. However then, the kitty strikes and … shock! They’ve met the museum’s beloved resident cat, Bathroom, who is not any stuffed toy.

This 12 months, Bathroom celebrates his tenth birthday and tenth anniversary on the 25-year-old museum.

Turning into Bathroom

Bathroom discovered the museum by means of serendipity as a stray kitten in 2013. The furry little man, then about 4 to five months outdated, sneaked into and stowed away in a van that belonged to the filming crew of Captain Z & the Terror of Leviathan, an indie comedy-horror film that was shot within the Wheeling space, the place the museum is situated.

On the second day of filming, the kitten got here working from one of many autos within the car parking zone, trotted up the steps to the museum and made himself at residence. A supervisor tried to seek out the kitty an adopter for perhaps an hour, however staffers knew they have been goners. They agreed: The kitten had a house already, proper there on the museum.

“All of us fell in love. How will you not?” says Becky Gerlak, IT supervisor on the museum.

A customer favourite

Bathroom — named after legendary Twentieth-century American toy maker Louis Marx and Firm, the maker of the large robotic referred to as Large Bathroom — lives and sleeps on the museum, and employees members all pitch in to handle him. Museum guests are often delighted to come across the kitty, who has developed a fan following. Bathroom has his personal Fb web page referred to as “Bathroom Authorised,” and the museum will seemingly add a web page devoted to the cat to its web site (toy andtrain.com), Becky says.

Many individuals come from close to and
far primarily to see Bathroom, after which take a look at the museum’s assortment of classic toys, together with dolls, collectible figurines, vehicles, robots and video games. Becky recollects a couple of years in the past, when a tour bus en route from Los Angeles to New York Metropolis with about 35 individuals on board stopped on the museum as a result of somebody needed to fulfill Bathroom.

Proper at residence

Bathroom is pleasant and loving to company, and he usually likes to be petted however not picked up, Becky says. Bathroom generally follows individuals across the museum, and also you by no means know the place you’ll stumble upon him. Some followers ship Bathroom presents of catnip toys and different goodies. Throughout my go to, Bathroom was lounging on the large staircase and watching over the foyer.

Having a cat offers the museum — which even has a claw merchandising machine within the foyer stuffed with plush toys referred to as “Bathroom’s Loot” — a hotter, fuzzier and extra homey and alluring really feel, Becky says.

“Individuals say that he’s lovely,” she says. “Lots of people say that he appears like their cat. … They see Bathroom, and it makes them really feel extra at residence as a result of they keep in mind their cat.”

Melanie “Mel” Larch, an enormous fan of Bathroom’s and an everyday customer, remembers looking the museum’s reward store in the future and working into Bathroom there. She sat down on the ground, and Bathroom climbed into her lap and sat along with her for a number of minutes.

“He’s only a actually candy cat,” says Mel, who travels to the museum from West Virginia. “He’s an amazing attraction for the museum — an amazing ambassador, if you’ll.”