Cats with High-Ranking Human Jobs (#152)

Who remembers, all the way back in the day, when I did an episode on Corporal Wojtek? Well, unsurprisingly, he was not the only animal that has had a high ranking ‘human’ job. So I found some more for you all! Now whilst there is a plethora of many types of animals who had cool jobs, there was a whole bunch of cats that I found and, as a cat mum, I couldn’t resist focusing on them for this episode. But let us know if you’d like another episode focusing on dogs, horses or there could even be one on penguins!

Mayor Stubbs 

Mayor Stubbs the cat officially held the highest office in the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska for nearly 20 years! With fewer than 900 residents, the unincorporated territory, it’s not even really a town at all. Despite this, in 1997 the mayoral election sparked apathy in the community, with no candidate deemed worthy enough to lead.

At the same time, on April 12, 1997, Lauri Stec, manager at the Nagley’s General Store, picked a kitty from a box full of unwanted cats. She selected a little ginger kitten, without a tail, whom she fittingly dubbed “Stubbs.” The people of Talkeetna enacted a write-in campaign, and Mayor Stubbs the cat became the town’s new leader.

Now the Talkeetnans weren’t totally mad — the mayorhood was more symbolic than anything else. But, that doesn’t mean his legacy isn’t a fond one. According to Stec, “He doesn’t raise our taxes — we have no sales tax. He doesn’t interfere with business. He’s honest.”

With apparently the bare minimum met, the denizens of Talkeetna were content to let their furry mayor traipse around town drinking catnip-spiked water from stemware and “taking meetings” at the General Store/his office. Mayor Stubbs’ only demands were attention when he wants it, and interference when he didn’t

For all his unorthodox ascendance, the laissez-faire leader led a fairly scandal-free reign, until he had a run-in with an unleashed dog. 

On August 31, 2013, Stubbs was attacked by a dog. He was placed under heavy sedation at a veterinary hospital 70 miles away in Wasilla, having suffered a punctured lung, a fractured sternum, and a deep cut in his side. A crowd-funding page was set up to help pay his veterinary bills, and Stubbs remained in the veterinary hospital for nine days before returning home to the upstairs room of the general store. As a result, he was discouraged from roaming. Donations toward his care were received from around the world; the surplus was given to an animal shelter and to the local veterinary clinic. 

Other incidents included Stubbs being shot by teenagers with BB guns, falling into a restaurant's deep fryer (which was switched off and cool at the time), and hitching a ride to the outskirts of Talkeetna on a garbage truck. The stalwart mayor survived, however, and kept up his career until he died four years later, on July 21, 2017, at the age of 20. Mayor Stubbs’ brother, Denali, became the mayorhood’s natural successor.

Catmando, political party leader

Catmando (born in 1995) was a ginger and white cat who was named "joint leader" of Britain's Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) from 1999 to 2002, along with his owner, party chairman Howling Laud Hope.

Quick side bar: The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Lord Sutch". It is notable for its deliberately bizarre policies and it effectively exists to satirise British politics, and to offer itself as an alternative for protest voters, especially in constituencies where the party holding a safe seat is unlikely to lose it.

Catmando was originally called "Catman". His name was changed after a customer at the Golden Lion (Hope's pub and guesthouse in Ashburton, Devon) asked a music question that Hope could not answer; the customer commented: "I bet Catman do [know the answer]". Consequently, he became "Catmando". 

The cat later moved with Hope to the Dog and Partridge public house in Yateley, Hampshire. Gurkhas, stationed nearby at Aldershot, were intrigued by a name that sounded like the Nepalese capital Kathmandu; subsequently the cat became the subject of a front-page feature in the Nepali Times. The "Cat Mandu" spelling became common through media misinterpretation, but Hope has confirmed that "Catmando" is the correct spelling. 

One of the OMRLP proposed laws is that no other cat shall be called "Catmando", as there can only be one.

Following the 1999 death of the party's founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, the OMRLP held a leadership election with Alan "Howling Laud" Hope (who was then the party's chairman and deputy leader) and Catmando as the only two candidates. The vote was a tie, with Hope and Catmando each receiving 125 votes. Hope, as the party chairman, had the deciding vote, and decided that he and Catmando should serve as joint leaders. 

During Catmando's time as joint leader, the OMRLP saw its greatest electoral performance to date, fielding 15 candidates in the 2001 general election. Catmando served as joint leader until his death as a result of a traffic accident in July 2002. Hope then became the party's sole leader. 

Following Catmando's death, the party proposed that there should be cat-crossings on all major roads.

Tama the Station Master

This story began in the late 1990s with a young calico cat called Tama. The calico kitten, born 29th April 1999, lived and grew up with a group of stray cats near Kishi Station and would frequently hang out by the railway, soaking up affection from commuters.

Over the years, Tama’s sweet nature and photogenic features made her popular with the commuters, and adoring onlookers affectionately began referring to her as Kishi’s ‘stationmaster’. But by the mid-2000s, a combination of low ridership and financial problems threatened to close down the rural rail line, and the line’s 14 stations were finally unstaffed in 2006.

But fortunately, it wasn’t the end for the railway or the beloved feline’s role in it. In 2006, the current president of the Wakayama Electric Railway, Mitsunobu Kojima, was asked by residents to revive the Kishigawa Line after the previous owner had announced it was to be abolished. The owner of a local convenience store near Kishi Station, who had become Tama’s guardian, had also decided to move on, but before leaving he requested that the railway look after Tama. It is said that when the president, who was famously known to be a dog person, met Tama he utterly fell for her in a big way. Soon after adopting Tama, Kojima ordered a customised stationmaster’s hat for his little cat (which took more than six months to complete) and in January 2007 he officially named Tama the ‘Stationmaster of Kishi Station’ – the first feline stationmaster in Japan. She even had a gold name tag made for her collar stating her name and position – the original was stolen by a visitor on October 10th 2007, but a replica was quickly made to replace it. Then in July 2008, a summer hat was also issued to Tama for hotter weather.

As stationmaster, one of Tama’s duties was to be the face of the railway and appear in promotional material and media coverage. She also got paws-on at the station, sometimes greeting passengers from atop a table set up by the ticket gates or from the behind the glass window of her ‘office’ – a converted ticket booth equipped with a litter tray and bed.

Tama was so adored by riders and railway staff that a painted portrait of her was soon commissioned, which now hangs alongside numerous glossy photos of her in Kishi Station’s souvenir shop – where visitors can buy everything from Tama badges and keyrings to Tama-branded candy. In lieu of a ‘salary’, Tama got all the cat food she needed. She received a promotion, too: On January 5th 2008, Tama was promoted to "superstation master" in a ceremony attended by the president of the company, the mayor, and approximately 300 spectators. As a result of her promotion, she was "the only female in a managerial position" in the company. Her gold name tag was modified to a gold tag with a blue background with an added "S" for "super".

Then on October 28th 2008, Tama was knighted and awarded the title of "Wakayama de Knight" (a pun on "It's got to be Wakayama" in Japanese) by the prefectural governor, Yoshinobu Nishizaka, for her work in promoting local tourism. In the process, she received a dark blue ceremonial gown with white lace neck ruffles, and thousands of tourists began coming to the small, single-platform station to see her.

It is believed that Tama’s presence at the station is estimated to have attracted 55,000 more riders on the Kishigawa Line than were expected in 2007, and during her full reign as stationmaster from 2007 until 2015, she contributed upwards of 1.1bn yen (£7.85m) to the local economy. The annual number of passengers on the Kishigawa Line increased by almost 300,000 from 2006.

Tama is often cited as part of a phenomenon known in Japan as "Nekonomics" which refers to the positive economic impact of having a cat mascot. To capitalise on the region’s Tama craze, in 2010 the railway hired award-winning industrial designer Eiji Mitooka – known for his sleek Japanese bullet trains – to completely redesign the train’s exteriors and interiors as a Tama-themed line. The Tamaden railway was born.

In an ode to Tama, the outsides of Tamaden’s two white carriages are now decorated with paw prints and 101 cartoon images of Tama, including Tama enjoying a satisfying stretch, cheerfully licking a paw and mischievously poised to pounce. The front of the train even has little whiskers, while inside are old-fashioned wooden floors and shelves of children’s books. As a finishing touch, when the doors open at each station, a few meows purr through the PA system – an actual recording of Tama.

Also in 2010, Tama got another promotion to the post of "Operating Officer" in recognition of her contribution to expanding the customer base. Tama maintained the station master's job while taking over the new job, and was the first cat to become an executive of a railroad corporation. 

On January 6th 2011, Tama's fourth year as stationmaster was celebrated with a ceremony and her promotion to "Managing Executive Officer", third in line in management after the company president and the managing director. 

On January 5th 2013, at the ceremony celebrating her sixth year as stationmaster, Tama was elevated to Honorary President of Wakayama Electric Rail for life. In April 2013, it was announced that due to Tama's increasing age, her work hours would be reduced, and she would only be on view in the station office Tuesday through Friday, a reduction of two days from her original Monday through Saturday hours.

By the time Tama passed away on June 22, 2015 of apparent heart failure, she was 16 years old and had appeared in prominent TV shows, magazines and newspapers across Japan. Thousands of people attended her Shinto-style funeral at the station, leaving piles of flower bouquets and cans of tuna outside. The "Tama train" was redecorated for mourning and the first ceremonial passengers were children from a local nursery school.

The ‘Honourable Eternal Station Master’, as she is now called, was then memorialised with a phone box-sized shrine on Kishi’s platform, and in the Japanese Shinto religious tradition, she was elevated to the status of a goddess of the Wakayama Electric Railway. 

After the traditional fifty-day mourning period, Tama was succeeded by her deputy, Nitama (which literally translates to Tama Two or Second Tama). Nitama's first official duty was to be conveyed to her predecessor's shrine to pay her respects, and every year on June 23, the anniversary of Tama's death, her successors Nitama and Yontama (Tama Four) are carried to her shrine and offerings are presented by the company president on their behalf.