Campaign to elect a cat as the Mayor of Oakland is a psychological game to relieve stress

I’ve seen it before, cats and dogs campaigning to be mayor of a town or city in America. It looks a bit bizarre but it has a purpose especially nowadays. With the stresses of coronavirus combined with the lengthy presidential election, there is a need for a bit of levity and frivolity to lighten up life. And this is the purpose behind the raft of campaigning companion animals to be the Mayor of Oakland.

To an outsider, the presidential election in America looks odd. On the one hand you have Trump who doesn’t need describing. People know his strengths and weaknesses but his weaknesses have become a liability. On the other hand we have a wax works dummy who is no doubt a very good man but he’s beyond his sell by date. Outsiders think that America can do better. Out of the 310 million citizens of that great nation you would have thought that they could have picked a couple of candidates of a higher quality to lead them to a brighter future.

Wally is a higher quality candidate! He’s a long-haired ginger tabby and white domestic cat who doesn’t have an official owner according to the reports. He showed up at the block where Heather La Mastro lives west of San Pablo Ave., about five years ago. The neighbours fed him so he hung around. He looks in good nick. They all love him and he’s a free spirit. They learned to refer to him as the “Mayor of 55th St.”.

During the coronavirus shutdown La Mastro said that more people were out and about (I hope they were keeping social distance!). Wally was friendly with everyone so as the presidential election progressed, and went on and on and on, they decided that a bit of relief was needed. They thought that it would be a cute idea to officially launch Wally’s campaign for Mayor.

He has three competitors of the furry kind: Betty a grey tabby cat, Mimi, a charming looking dog and Macy another sweet dog. Wally has an official Twitter hashtag #Wally4Mayor and La Mastro says that the reaction from the public as being good. They find it really hilarious. Well, there you go, a bit of levity in society which people need.

The campaigning begs the question whether a dog or a cat would be better for mayor. We may have to get into speciesism, a discussion between which species of animal is better and I would suggest that if you did a poll you’d find that dogs would probably come out on top although of course I prefer cats! Why dogs? Because men prefer dogs and men think they’d make a better mayor. A tortuous logic.