The dogs of the new president of Argentina made us remember the cat mayor and goat rulers

The dogs of Argentina’s new president, Javier Miley, have become Internet stars today. Their photos are posted on social networks, and their origin story has been turned into a meme. And all because Miley is a big eccentric. He was so attached to his first mastiff, Conan, that he could not come to terms with the death of his beloved dog. He cloned four puppies using Conan’s DNA and still communicates with him in séances. Miley also claims that dogs give him valuable advice in economics. He even named them after famous American economists: Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard and Robert Lucas – Milton, Murray, Robert and Lucas.

However, the Argentine president’s dogs are far from the only pets who managed to break into big-time politics. Take, for example, Larry the cat, Britain’s most famous mousetrap. He can at any moment enter the Prime Minister’s office in Downing Street without knocking, jump on the table, lie down on the table, and nothing will happen to him for it, because Larry is officially in the service of Her Majesty. By the way, Britain has been changing prime ministers like gloves lately, but the cat is always in his residence. He even has a salary, albeit a small one – only 100 pounds a month.

And remember Vladimir Putin’s Labrador Connie – what kind of state secrets has this dog been a witness to? After all, the labrador was present at many meetings of our president with the heads of other states. She lived a long and eventful life, gave birth to 11 puppies and rested in peace 10 years ago, after which residents of two houses on Primorsky Avenue in St. Petersburg expressed a desire to erect a monument to the “first dog of Russia.” Knowing our president’s love for dogs, he is often given puppies. Now he has 6 dogs. But one day he was given a Ussuri tiger cub, now he is already an adult male and lives in the zoo in Gelendzhik.

But former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is a cat person. His favorite cat Dorofey also often became an object of interest for the press. They say that when Medvedev was head of government, he was given a deer, but they never met. The deer was not taken to Moscow; it remained in its native tundra, probably waiting to be taken to the capital’s residence.

There have always been more avid dog lovers among famous politicians, and their pets are always better known to the people than other pets. Take, for example, Stalin’s dog. A stuffed animal of his beloved spaniel, Milka, is still kept in the vaults of the Darwin Museum. It is curious that Milka ended up in the museum in the same year when they decided to remove the mummy of Stalin himself from Lenin’s mausoleum – such a paradox of history.

By the way, this dog was given to Joseph Vissarionovich by the Queen of the Netherlands, and Elizabeth II presented a white poodle puppy to our other Secretary General, Nikita Khrushchev. He, in turn, gave Pushinka, the puppy of the legendary Strelka, who flew into space, to the daughter of American President John Kennedy, and he accepted that gift with gratitude, however, the intelligence services then almost turned the poor dog inside out in search of bugs and other spy devices.

But in general, dogs can rightfully be called ambassadors of peace, because heads of state very often give each other living gifts. However, it is one thing to be the owner’s favorite toy, and quite another to become his economic guru, like Miley’s dogs. Are there any other precedents in world history when four-legged animals were allowed to govern, if not the state, then at least the city?

It turns out there is. Many people have read about the cat Stubbs, who for almost 10 years was officially the mayor of the Talkeetna area in Alaska. Biographers of the famous cat write that residents were very disappointed with other candidates for the post of mayor, and then, for fun, someone suggested making a cat head of the local administration. The joke, oddly enough, was taken seriously, and the cat remained in the mayor’s chair until his death.

But the cat mayor is far from the only case, and most often government positions were given to animals in the United States. For example, in the American city of Lajitas there is a whole dynasty of goats who have been “ruling” the city since 1986. An even more odious incident occurred in the province of Vangomomon. The authorities decided to carry out some kind of administrative reform there, like we have in the Moscow region – to abolish rural municipalities, incorporating them into urban districts. People were angry at such changes, and they proclaimed themselves the sovereign republic of Vangomomon, and the 12-year-old goat Billy Gambut became the president and at the same time the mayor of the village. But after 18 months of his reign, the poor fellow died – he could not bear the burden of power.

History knows other high-profile careers of four-legged dogs, so the Argentine president’s dogs giving him economic advice is not the worst case of political bestiality. By the way, the Chinese have long been saying that American democracy is just bullshit, since an ordinary mongrel can become the mayor of a city there. This happened after the dog Basco became the mayor of the city of Sanole in California. Then indignant defenders of freedom of elections brought Bosco to San Francisco and staged a rally at the Chinese consulate, and then proclaimed the dog mayor a symbol of freedom and democracy. And when the dog died, grateful townspeople erected a monument in his honor.