No. 10

The Wall Street Journal's A-Hed pieces continues to be a muse to my blog postings. And yesterday's piece was no exception.

A 'Cat-astrophe' Is Brewing at 10 Downing Street
Larry the 'Chief Mouser' meets his sixth prime minister; this one has rival felines

The piece written by Priya Bharadia and David Luhnow is almost a straightforward one about a senior feline resident of No. 10 Downing Street, Larry, that is now getting fed by its 6th Prime Minister, newly elected Keir Starmer.

Larry is 17, and there are those who fully expect his days might be numbered. Nevertheless, Larry is more on guard than a Beefeater at Buckingham Palace.

Prime Minister Starmer is bringing in his own cat. Not to replace Larry, but to hopefully coexist—play nice in their litter box, if indeed they share one.

Seventeen is getting up there in a cat's life expectancy, whether you believe in 9 lives or not. At the end of this April we had to put our cat Cosmo down who had reached 17 and was in the late stages of kidney failure. Not a fun day.

But so far, Larry doesn't seem to be showing signs of looming medical illnesses. There is video of him (of course there is video) giving a pigeon the bum's rush.

This of course doesn't surprise me. Those Rock Doves are just about in every urban setting. What I was rather astonished to read in the next to last column after the jump was that there is video from 2022 of Larry chasing a fox away from the front of No. 10. Yes, a fox! Tally-Ho fox hunting might have been banned in the U.K., but Larry didn't get the edict. He's making sure Downing Street proper remains fox free.

The fox, aside from looking completely out of place, looks sickly. He/she looks skanky and emaciated. They might have been patrolling around for food. Larry, the Chief Cabinet Level Mouser, was having none of it, and gave the fox something else to think about.

What I can tell from Google Earth, No. 10 abuts St. James Park, which hardly compares in size or woodland to Central Park. I once read Central Park has sections of it that meet he definition of a forest. And I'm probably sure has a fox or two hiding out somewhere.

Larry's got roommates, or at least another two other cats that can call No. 10 home. The current Prime Minster, Keir Starmer, has a wife and two teenage children living with him at No.10, along with their cat JoJo, a male ginger tabby. According to the A-Hed piece, JoJo and Larry have yet to encounter each other. Larry didn't get along with the prior Prime Minister's (Rishi Sundak) dog Nova, a Labrador, who reportedly came out on the losing end of their encounter.. Larry looks like the typical territorial male feline. Big.

The Starmers have added a kitten after the teenagers relented and gave up wanting a German Shepard. JoJo and the kitten are confined to the family's living quarters, and Larry gets the run of the rest of the place, coming back in through the back door, opened by a guard on duty. A cat flap in a bombproof door is eluding designers.

The Starmers are getting advice on how to make the eventually meeting of Larry and JoJo and the kitten go smoothly. Something about introducing the scent of them to each other through blankets with the others' scent.

Cats Protection, a British charity suggested the scent transfer method by "using a small flannel or blanket to wipe over each cat, and then place near the other cat." I smell you, but do I like you? Yet to be determined.

(I once heard  the story of Johnny Cash meeting Rodney Crowell for the first time, who was then dating Johnny's daughter Rosanne, later marrying and then getting divorced from. Johnny is said to have shook Rodney's hand and told him: "I just met you, and I don't like you.") Fathers can like Larry.

As for popularity, Larry leads in the polls over both the former and the current prime minter. But at 17, how much longer will he remain in power? 

Will Larry eventually join our Cosmo in the heavens above? Everything is certain. It's only when.

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