Community Bookstore’s Tiny the Cat: I Has Twitter Account?

Thanks to cat memes (those hilarious pictures of cats with captions), felines can “has” anything from “cheezburgers” to “Poland.”

And now, thanks to a bookseller, one Park Slope kitty—which lives in the on Seventh Avenue—is able to ask: “I can has Twitter?”

Yes, that’s right: Tiny the cat has his own Twitter account, @TinytheUsurper.

The human behind Tiny’s tweets is one of the bookstore’s employees, AC Harkness.

“He has gone through different phases of activity,” Harkness said, who also had an account for the store’s other cat who passed away, named Marjorie Lambshank (@SirMarjorie).

“Tiny’s personality is bitter, egotistical and selfish,” she said, explaining the reason behind his snarky tweets. “He’s not the nicest cat, but extremely photogenic.”

Harkness said that she likes to think of Tiny as the cat version of Bernard Black, the main character of the British TV show “Black Books.” In the show, Black owns a bookstore and is a pessimistic drunk misanthrope.

Tiny’s twitter account has been active for about a year-and-a-half, but Harkness has only recently been more active with her updates.

“We try to tweet at least once a day and are trying to be more dedicated to his account and be more creative,” she said.

Harkness says she doesn’t have to think too hard to be inspired to tweet. In fact, she said, Tiny does all the work.

“When he’s in our face with his butt on the keyboard, being a typical cat and saying, ‘Look at me while you work,’ he gives us a lot to tweet about,” she said. “When it’s a good day, he’s giving us a lot of material to work with.”

One of the more egotistical tweets reads: “I mean look at me! I probably have kittens in all five boroughs at this point - do they really think I need any 'enhancement'?”

Harkness also tries to have Tiny interact with people.

One day on Twitter, someone posted an article about how a cat named Stubbs is the mayor of a town in Alaska, so Harkness took a picture of Tiny and wrote:

“I will accept nominations to the US presidency or maybe Brooklyn Borough Pres., or at least king of all bookstores.”

Tiny—who sports a spiked collar bejeweled with rhinestones—also does his own “book reviews,” where Harkness takes a picture of him next to a book and the “review” is open to interpretation.

When he reviewed “The Rules of Civility” by Amor Towles he was sticking his tongue out.

“We have this joke that he absorbs literature through his fur, because he lays on the new and hardcover books,” she said, explaining that the new book table is also his favorite place to sleep.

Many of the tweets have pictures and this is where Tiny's true talent comes in to play. 

“I have experience photographing cats,” Harkness said while laughing at the sentence she just said out loud, “and he’s the best. He looks at the camera with a badass attitude.”

Tiny has been making friends with the customers, entertaining the employees and is trained like a dog. He knows his name, comes when he's beckoned him and will do anything for a treat.

“He’s extraordinarily smart and well-trained,” Harkness said. “He’s a great cat, but he bites us a lot.”

So, next time you stop by the bookstore, maybe tweet @TinytheUsurper to make sure he’s not sleeping. If you wake him up, he might come after you on Twitter:

“I can't get no privacy here! Trying to take a nap in the window and people still be peeping at me,” Tiny tweeted.

If you want to follow Tiny, his handle is @TinytheUsurper.