Flying Fur at 10 Downing Street

Remember Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, who resides in the British Prime Minister's official residence at 10 Downing Street, London? Larry's job is to keep down the mice at that famous address. I did a post on him about a year ago -- click here if you'd like to read it.

Alas, it now seems that poor Larry is not such a fierce mouser after all. His stats suck big time. He's only caught a single mouse on the job. Worst of all, the Prime Minister caught Larry napping in a chair while a mouse ran right in front of him! The PM woke Larry so he could do his duty for England, but Larry only briefly opened one eye and then promptly went back to sleep.

So now there is a new cat at 10 Downing Street named Freya. She is a street-hardened veteran of the mouser brigade. Appropriately enough, she is named for the Norse Goddess who commands the warlike Valkyries of battlefield fame.

To spare Larry's fragile male ego, Freya is simply said to be "job-sharing" the Chief Mouser position with him. But Larry knows the ugly truth and he doesn't like it one little bit. In fact, Larry got into a terrible cat fight with Freya right on the doorstep of No. 10 in full view of the press and paparazzi!

Freya made short work of him, of course, and now poor Larry is more disgraced than ever. I think if he's wise, Larry will take an early retirement package from the civil service and go live quietly with a nice old lady somewhere in rural England.

[Photos from the British press online]