General elections in Britain throw up some predictable news stories. For those, like myself, with an interest in animal history, some of the best are the familiar photo features of pets at polling stations. This is a recent tradition, now firmly established, that has proven handy for news outlets that have to wait until the polls have closed for serious reporting.
Party affiliation is sometimes apparent in the form of colours and rosettes and viewers can imagine that the appearance of a pack of foxhounds outside a polling station in rural Hampshire signifies the countryside Conservative vote. But these political animals largely provide light relief in times of political and social strife. There is a reassuring sense of political continuity, of business as usual, as well as a pleasingly British eccentricity. It’s hard not to smile.
The same can be said of the political icon that is Larry the Cat, the rescued moggy that has been a resident at No 10 Downing Street for just over a decade. Larry was adopted in 2011 as a pet for then prime minister David Cameron’s children. But he has become something much more than that. Not just because he has official duties and the title of “chief mouser to the cabinet office”, but also because he stays at No 10 while prime ministers come and go.
