I love this one. We know that in London there are domestic cats who have been specifically employed by the government to keep down the rodent population. We know about Larry at number 10 Downing Street and there’s a cat at the Treasury but I’ve forgotten his name temporarily. They sometimes meet and fight!
In any case the city has a vacancy at the iconic City Hall which is on the banks of the River Thames overlooking another iconic building, Tower Bridge. This is a round, top heavy, glass and metal structure. Inside is a very well-known assembly room in the middle of a spiral staircase which is incredibly photogenic. Also in this building is the mayor’s office. The mayor currently is a Labour politician, Sadiq Khan.
A party of schoolchildren were visiting City Hall. A lot of people visit this iconic building, often tourists. On this occasion a mouse fell at the feet of the schoolchildren. I’m not sure how the mouse fell at their feet but it would imply that the mouse was clambering around the ceiling!
Apparently, it is well known that there is a mice problem in the building. One of the staff at the building says that you can’t leave food out even in locked drawers as the mice get at it.
A Labour assembly member, Tom Copley said:
“There is a serious problem with mice at City Hall. One fell out of the ceiling in front of a group of schoolchildren quite recently. You can’t leave food out anywhere. The solution to this would be to get one or more cats. Support for the cat will come down more to like or dislike of cats rather than party allegiance. Obviously there is now a series of cats within the political buildings, so why not City Hall?”
Exactly, why not? The domestic cat has been very successful in managing mice and rats in other well-known political buildings and therefore the obvious answer is to pop down to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and adopt a suitable rescue cat there. This animal rescue centre is not far from City Hall.
The area around City Hall is all pedestrianised which is probably a good thing as the selected cat will probably wonder outside the building. There is no doubt in my mind that the resident domestic cat at City Hall would also become a highly popular tourist attraction enhancing an already very popular building.
I’d vote for getting the cat!