{"id":1397,"date":"2016-07-26T04:52:15","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T12:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2016-07-26T04:52:34","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T12:52:34","slug":"newsday-tuesday-the-mayor-is-a-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1397","title":{"rendered":"Newsday Tuesday \u2013 The Mayor is a Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1398\" src=\"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/catmayor-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"catmayor\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/catmayor-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/catmayor-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/catmayor.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/strong>While in Alaska, I visited a town whose mayor is a cat. Yes, the mayor of Talkeetna, a small town about halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks\u2014near Mt. Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley)\u2014is a cat. His name is Stubbs because of his short tail (due to an accident). They say that he was <em>elected<\/em> mayor because he is so wise. He was evidently a write-in candidate in the local election when he was a mere kitten in 1997. Due to his advanced age (he\u2019s 19 now, and failing), he no longer greets visitors as they meander through the quaint small town. Even with my credentials as an author and cat blogger, I was denied access to him. And I understood. This photo of Stubbs is taken from a postcard. Handsome fellow, isn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n<p>Read more about this unlikely mayor in this story published in the NY Daily News <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/cat-mayor-alaska-town-15-years-article-1.1116263\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/cat-mayor-alaska-town-15-years-article-1.1116263<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I wondered, are there other mayors of the feline persuasion around the world? Surprisingly (or is it?) yes. In Barnual, Siberia last December, citizens voted a Scottish fold named Barsik into office by over a whopping ninety percent. Read the story: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/12\/16\/europe\/siberian-city-cat-mayor\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/12\/16\/europe\/siberian-city-cat-mayor\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Petro has taken over as mayor, greeter, postman\u2014you name it\u2014in Carroll Gardens, NY. This is an extraordinarily charming story\u2014a must read!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/06\/nyregion\/the-cat-mayor-of-carroll-gardens.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/03\/06\/nyregion\/the-cat-mayor-of-carroll-gardens.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But cats aren\u2019t the only animals that have run for office\u2014check out this site and meet <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-134185\" title=\"clay-henry-mayor\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mentalfloss.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/clay-henry-mayor.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" \/>political dogs and even a goat! <a href=\"http:\/\/mentalfloss.com\/article\/31231\/4-animals-ran-mayor-and-won\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/mentalfloss.com\/article\/31231\/4-animals-ran-mayor-and-won<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While in Alaska, I visited a town whose mayor is a cat. Yes, the mayor of Talkeetna, a small town about halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks\u2014near Mt. Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley)\u2014is a cat. His name is Stubbs because of his &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1397\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1400,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}