This is Stubbs. He’s a cat. He’s also the mayor Talkeetna, a small town in Alaska with about 900 residents.
You might think it’s strange to have a cat for a mayor but the people of Talkeetna have kept Mayor Stubbs in office for the last 15-years. According to ABC, the residents of the small town weren’t happy with any of the candidates so they decided to put a cat in charge.
Resident Lauri Stec told KTUU:
“He’s good. He’s probably the best we’ve ever had… He was just in the Alaska Magazine, and he’s been featured in a few different things.”
And the cat mayor has real mayoral duties. Mayor Stubbs spends most of his days at Nagley’s General Store where he tirelessly greets the citizens and purrs for votes.
Skye Farrar, an employee at Nagley’s, said:
“The tour guides will trick them [the tourists]… They’ll tell them to go to Nagley’s and ask for the mayor.”
Stec adds:
“Oh my gosh, we probably have 30 to 40 people a day come in who are tourists wanting to see him.”
According to ABC , Stubbs position as mayor is an honorary one, but that doesn’t mean that the cat isn’t good for the town. Stubbs is the town’s biggest ambassador and has brought in several tourists. He also has a Facebook Page with close to 3,500 likes, more than three times the population of Talkeetna.
What do you think? Should we replace all of our elected officials with cats?