El “primer felino” Larry cumple 15 años como el gato político líder de Reino Unido – Chicago Tribune

By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — In turbulent political times, stability is at stake with four patas, bigots and an aficion for naps.

Larry the cat celebrates 15 years on Sunday as the British government’s official cazador to kings and, unofficially, first feline, a calming presence who served under its prime ministers. It sometimes appears that they served under your command.

“Larry the cat’s approval ratings will be very high. And prime ministers can’t talk about these cifras,” commented Philip Howell, a professor at the University of Cambridge who has studied the history of human-animal relations. “Él represents stability, and it is also a very valiant good.”

The history of the superiority of the gray and white minino atigrado led him to be an animal callejero in the seat of power in United Kingdom, at number 10 Downing St., where he ostentated the official title of Jefe Cazador de Ratones de l’Oficina del Gabinete.

Adopted from London’s Battersea Dogs and Cats Home by Prime Minister David Cameron, Larry entered Downing Street on February 15, 2011. After finding a profile on the United Kingdom government website, his duties included “greeting house guests, inspecting security defenses and quality-checking antique furniture for naps.”

Larry moves freely and has a knack for stealing the lead from world leaders who arrive at the famous black gate of 10 Downing St., to remove press photos.

“It’s great to showcase the photos,” said Justin Ng, a freelance photographer who over the years has gotten to know Larry well. “If you have a foreign guide at the tour point, then know that you will be right at the exact moment you are going to get that greeting.”

Larry has known many world leaders, who once had the opportunity to ride or pass by them. He observed that in general he was somewhat friendly with the men, although the US president named him Barack Obama, and visited President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit by the Ukrainian president to London.

During the visit of United States President Donald Trump in 2019, Larry appeared in the official photo at the entrance and later took a nap under “la Bestia”, the president’s blind car.

Reports of Larry’s abilities as leader of kings vary, although the photographer caught someone who had run away and, once, a paloma, which escaped.

“Es más lover than luchador,” he added. “Es very good in what hace: holgazanear y, fundamentally, mostrarle to the people who are very despaired”.

Larry has lived, on several occasions, with certain pullers, with the prime ministers’ mascots, among others Dilyn, Boris Johnson’s mixed-race Jack Russell, and Nova, Rishi Sunak’s Labrador retriever. He takes good care of current Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s family cats, JoJo and Prince, who live in the familiar private aposents, while Larry runs the Downing Street working areas.

You have a volatile relationship with Palmerston, the chief diplomatic spokesperson for the field office across the street from Number 10. And between law enforcement, jeando several times before Palmerston retired in 2020. Palmerston died here in Bermuda, where he retired as the governor’s “feline relations consultant.”

Meanwhile, Larry says here. 18 or 19 years ago he had a bit of speed, but he continued to drive around his territory and sit on a radiator, just inside the number 10 door.

It’s white British power in the shape of a feline, and it’s every prime minister who will defect from office.

“A prime minister who gets into cats, that to me is political suicide,” Howell said.

Howell explained that Larry’s status as an “official mascot” is not a proponent that distinguishes U.S. presidential mascots — with high frequencies of dogs — that United State leaders have previously used to promote their image.

“The fact that cats are the least manageable is also part of the charm,” he added. “It is capriciously nonpartisan in any political feeling, but it may appeal to some people and not others, and it is not necessarily felt by those who want to feel nor possessed by those who pose.”

“There is a certain type of indocility in Larry who believes that, without much else, he is trainable for the British.”

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The Associated Press video journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.