Parliamentary cats

Canadian Parliamentary Cats

Did you know that the Canadian parliament is the only Parliament in the world that has life-long members?

The Parliamentary Cats is a bunch of stray cats that live on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario.

They are taken care of by René Chartrand, who built a small block of cat houses that look like mock parliament buildings inside a small enclosure for the cats.

The cats can roam the property, slipping in and out of their sanctuary.

The cats were originally allowed inside the parliament buildings to help control mouse and rat populations.

There are currently around fourteen different cats on the premises.

The care of the cats is estimated to cost C$6000 annually.

Surely the sum would have been much less but for the Canadian nature of the cats: they are true Canadians, they love nature and animals thus letting a pack of racoons, squirrels and groundhogs ravage their foodbowls on a daily basis:

Here's a groundhog

And here are the raiders:

Pictures: courtesy of Maria Dorfinkley, author of "Maria Dorfinkley et les histoires vraies des Chats de la Colline du Parlement" .
See her blog at http://mariadorfinkley.canalblog.com
It's really cool and in French (you might be sorry you weren't taking French seriously at high school =^oo^=)

Well, Canadian cats are not the only civil servants with a fixed budget. There's also the Chief Mouser. The British government, though, is…well…kind of Scottish, if you know what I mean… Well, you can read about Chief Mouser in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Mouser_to_the_Cabinet_Office

We just offer you a glimpse of him/her (PC first!)