St15-year-old orien, official feline of Downing Street, Larry The Cat celebrates its first 12 years of service. A true record. Especially considering how little resistance his roommates have: since he’s been around, as many as 5 people have taken turns as Prime Minister. At the moment the big cat is healthy, even if only a few days ago a visit to the vet caused concern. Downing Street reassures: just a routine check. Larry, 15-16, is fine.
Artist Kaya Mar with her artwork celebrating 12 years of Larry The Cat in Downing Street. The cat is pictured with Prime Ministers he has seen pass: David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Credit:Justin Ng/Avalon)
Larry The Cat, the Downing Street cat celebrates 12 years of service
When on 15 February 2011 he arrived in Downing Street thanks to the association Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, who had rescued him after several years (3, more or less) of living as a stray, Larry was a «bit of an overbearing» type. Initially he was supposed to be the pet for the children’s David and Samantha Cameron but it has remained in permanent service at No. 10 ever since. To secure the job, he’d had to beat out four other candidates for his position.
His luck was that a Downing Street staff member took a liking to him. It is said that it was “because he was calm and did not worry about being chosen or not, unlike other more needy cats, who meowed and wanted attention”.
Twitter profile and duties
These details were enough to feed the myth and create the character of Larry The Cat. Not only that, in fact, the cat has its own profile on Twitter (over 824,000 followers), which offers a satirical version of the Downing Street events. But the newspapers also enjoy interpreting his thoughts. How does The Times imagining his view of life at 10 Downing Street: ‘Twelve years, huh? Apart from a couple of secretaries and policemen, I’ve been here longer than anyone. Not a bad life, all things considered. Free food, rats galore, politicians I pretend to like in front of the cameras. In private, if they take any liberties, I pee on their clothes.’
According to the Downing Street website, Larry’s duties include: ‘Welcoming guests to the home, inspecting security systems and quality testing antique furniture for a nap. Among his responsibilities is also the search for one solution for the age-old illegal occupation of the house by mice. But Larry says this matter is still “in the tactical planning stage.” Take your time, Larry, you have plenty of time.
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