Most politicians are at least somewhat divisive. One notable exception: Stubbs, a cat who served as the honorary mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for more than 18 scandal-free years. He first entered office around 1998, when the town (technically an unincorporated census-designated place) and its 900 residents chose him as their leader. (Rumors that Stubbs was officially elected as a write-in candidate are incorrect, but locals loved their feline "mayor" nonetheless.) Over the course of the next two decades, Stubbs became a popular tourist attraction and performed such mayoral duties as, in the words of Smithsonian Magazine, "wandering around the town, drinking catnip-laced water from margarita glasses, and of course, sleeping a lot." Take note, human politicians.
Stubbs isn't the only animal to lead a town. A black Labrador retriever named Bosco served honorably as mayor of Sunol, California, from 1981 until his passing in 1994; the town later erected a statue in his honor. Fair Haven, Vermont made the wise decision when electing its first-ever mayor in 2019 to put a goat named Lincoln in office, though he was defeated in the following year's election by Murfee the therapy dog. And across the country in San Francisco, Frida the Chihuahua had a one-day term as mayor in 2014 — among many other furry, friendly local officials.
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