Mark,
Firstly, it's about time for some spring cleaning. You're lucky you have cats, because if you had dogs, they would probably be marking all your books on the floor (and possibly tasting them too)
Secondly, I agree with Dave that you should use spot focusing in this example. MFA might be needed, but the key word is micro. If you're focus plane is 2' in front, that's not a micro adjustment you'll need to make, so I feel like something else is going on here.