It’s a tail as old as time. You’re in the right place at the right time and the next thing you know, you’re living in the White House.
That’s what happened to a gray, green-eyed stray cat named Willow, who showed up at a Joe Biden rally in Pennsylvania in 2020, got on stage and hung out with future First Lady Jill, who later I wrote a book about her.
Many other four-legged wonders have landed on padded feet in famous and fortuitous places.
And it works both ways: cats add value to the places they inhabit, whether simply by adding a cute factor or reporting rodents. Sometimes, they even define the location.
Take Lilibet, for example.
She’s a Siberian forest cat who spends one of her nine lives stretching her toes and napping by the fire at the five-star Lanesborough Hotel in London. Many people check in just to see the resident cat, which is named after Queen Elizabeth II, says managing director Stuart Geddes.
And Lilibet, who has hypoallergenic fur, isn’t the only cat living in a large British building.
Hodge stands within the sacristy of Southwark Cathedral, founded in 1106 on the south bank of the River Thames. He goes around delighting visitors and popping into the store to buy goodies, where fans can also buy their own plush version of him.
Not far away, across the Thames, is Larry, the famous cat from 10 Downing St.where he has stayed longer than most prime ministers – Kier Starmer is the sixth.
Employed as the Office’s Chief Mouser, Larry makes his living by maintaining the PM’s official office and residence more like a cat than a mouse. He outlasted his rival Palmerston, a former Foreign Office kitty who retired to the British countryside in 2020.
It is a similar situation in Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Around 80 cats call Catherine the Great’s baroque palace home in exchange for keeping the pest population low. They have their own press officer and a team of volunteers, who keep them publicized, fed and supplied as they walk around Russia’s state museum.
Another museum that has the pleasure of hosting a colony of cats is The Hemingway Homes and Museum, in Key West, Florida. Fifty-nine cats roam freely on the property, half of them descendants of Hemingway’s six-toed cat, Snow White.
Visitors are kept away from the original furniture, but the animals rest on the writer’s desk. A large “Cat Bible” helps trace the lineage of resident felines.
Alexa Morgan, from the Hemingway museum, says they are an extra attraction.
“We have visitors who come here because of Hemingway, and after they see the cats and love them, it’s like they visit us again so they can come back and see the cats,” she said.
And then there are those moggies without an impressive family tree or breed.
In Puerto Rico In Cuartel de Ballajá, on a Tuesday, a cat arrived at the Don Ruiz coffee shop, in San Juan. She spent her time napping and allowing customers to pet her (when she felt like it). They called her Tuesday and she became a regular customer.
In Venezuela, under the banner of Hugo Chávez, an unnamed cat became known to Caracas journalists. Often found snaking between the tripods of the National Electoral Council’s TV crews, this mysterious animal keeps reporters company as they wait for updates, playing with the occasional audio cable and generally strutting around like he runs the place.
Meanwhile, Lule is so beloved at the Dit’ and Nat (Day and Night) bar in Pristina, Kosovo, that her feline face has become her symbol, even on the sugar sachets. Owner Genc Salihu says she is part of the family and people come just to see and pet Lule.
“She is the soul of the place.”
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Adam Egan in London, Kirill Zarubin in St. Petersburg, Freida Frisaro in Florida, Florent Bajrami in Pristina, Alejandro Granadillo in San Juan and Juan Arraez in Caracas contributed to this report.
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