Polly Duncan

Polly Duncan is the head librarian at Pickax Public Library and serves Qwill's main love interest throughout the majority of the series. She is very fond of Qwill, as he is of her. Both of them are content to leave their relationship "as-is", as both had been married before and feel that marriage and cohabitation "Isn't for them."

Like Qwilleran, she also owns two cats, Brutus and Catta.

Depiction
Polly is portrayed as being charming at polite, yet stubborn and closed-minded. She closely guards her relationship with Qwill but tends to alternate between being openly affectionate and keeping him at arm's length. She is shown to be very jealous, often bristling at any interaction Qwill has with another woman, flirtatious or otherwise. Polly can be very judgemental of people on first meeting them and is very reluctant to change that opinion.

She is also shown to be an obsessive perfectionist, often second-guessing a decision in the hopes of finding a better option. This waffling often results in long periods of indecision, the stress of which negatively impacts her health on multiple occasions.

Unlike Qwilleran, Polly is shown to embrace new technologies, spearheading the operation to computerize the library's catalog and checkout system.

History
First introduced in The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare, Polly is living in a remote farmhouse, rented on her meager earnings as Picax Public Library's chief librarian. After a severe storm, Qwilleran convinces her to move into the refurbished Klingenschoen carriage house, which he had recently vacated.

Pets

 * Brutus - A male cat riginally named Bootsie, Brutus was foul-tempered and disobedient to anyone besides Polly. After finally giving into Qwill's suggestions that Polly give the cat a more dignified name, Brutus calmed down and became more "cat-like."
 * Catta - A female cat that Polly acquires as a companion for Brutus in the hopes of improving his disposition.