If you didn’t dislike Trump before (I doubt we have anyone here who didn’t), this is the cherry on the Sundae of Hate. Trump has dissed Republican NYC mayor candidate Curtis Sliwa (misspelled “Curtin” in the story), because Sliwa has a well known love of cats. As we know, anybody who doesn’t like cats can’t be trusted, and so we have one more instantiation of that claim. Click below to read:
An excerpt before we get to the video (bolding is mine):
President Donald Trump mocked Republican New York City mayoral candidate Curtin [sic] Sliwa Sunday for his admiration for cats, refusing to endorse him in the race and alleging he intended on turning the governor’s mansion into a refuge for felines.
Sliwa is running to defeat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, but has struggled in the race and polled at a distant third, with Mamdani showing a strong double-digit lead.
Trump was asked by Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo Saturday if he would consider making an endorsement in the race, specifically if he would endorse Sliwa, whose affinity for cats is well documented, having once owned 17 at once.
“Well, I don’t know. Is he really a Republican, am I a big fan? This isn’t exactly ideal where he wants to make Gracie Mansion a home for the cats,” Trump said, referencing New York City’s historic residence for New York City’s mayors. “Gracie Mansion is a magnificent home of Fiorello La Guardia, and the great mayor Rudy Giuliani, Giuliana was the greatest mayor in the history of New York, he did a great job!”
. . . Trump has railed against Mamdani as a “communist,” with many GOP lawmakers having called for him to be deported. Mamdani won his stunning upset victory back in June running on a progressive policy agenda that included pledges to implement rent freezes and increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents.
Here are Trump’s remarks. The “President” would not have cats because they are independent and don’t defer to their staff (and Trump could never be “staff”). I’m guessing that if he has or had an animal, it’s probably a servile d*g:
From CNN, a response from Sliwa’s sister (Sliwa once had 17 cats!):
Sliwa did not respond to Trump on Friday. His sister, the media director of the campaign, instead sent a statement from his campaign manager that didn’t mention the president but went in depth about his long history of caring for pets and having a vision about animal welfare along with increasing affordability, being tough on crime and enhancing quality of life. In addition to being the Republican nominee, Sliwa is running this fall on a second, independent ballot line called “Protect Animals.”
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And this article from People shows the remarkable resilience of cats. Click to read about Xiao Mao, the cat who survived three weeks in a shipping container sent from China to Minnesota.
An excerpt:
A feline named Xiao Mao, who survived a harrowing weeks-long, trans-Pacific voyage from China to Minnesota in a shipping container, is now putting on weight, gaining trust, and inching closer to adoption.
After being rescued over the summer, Xiao Mao is reportedly on the road to recovery. Once deathly thin and highly distrustful after days in the shipping container without food or water, the cat has blossomed under the care of Pet Haven Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn.. According to a report from CBS News, the volunteer foster organization hopes to place her and a feline companion with whom Xiao Mao has bonded in a forever home in the next few months.
“It’s actually amazing she survived that journey, and we are not 100% sure how she did it,” Kerry D’Amato, executive director of Pet Haven, told the outlet. “Three weeks without food or water, she would not be alive. She must have been drinking condensation, maybe eating bugs and rodents there.”
The survival success of Xiao Mao, which means “little cat” in Mandarin Chinese, is partly credited to Pet Haven’s Wallflowers Program, which specializes in helping shy or traumatized animals, like Xiao Mao, learn to trust again.
The cat’s journey began in June when she accidentally hitched a ride inside a shipping container, traveling roughly 8,000 miles over three weeks from China to Minnesota. When the container arrived in Oakdale, Minn., Xiao Mao was found cowering under pallets — remarkably alive but emaciated and severely dehydrated.
After being trapped and secured by animal control, the feline was sent to Northwoods Humane Society in Wyoming, Minn. However, due to Xiao Mao’s fragile condition, the shelter wasn’t equipped for the intensive rehabilitation she required, so Pet Haven and its Wallflowers Program stepped in.
“When she arrived to us, she was deathly thin and very ill,” D’Amato recalled. “She would charge at us, hiss, and lunge. Today, she chirps at us and comes out when we call her. Her eyes are bright, her ears are forward, she is giving us all the indications she is trusting.”
In the early months of recovery, Xiao Mao was extremely skittish, hiding from any human contact. Through patient and steady trust-building, she began to relax and now seeks out attention from her caretakers.
. . . . A breakthrough came when she was paired with another cat named Prince, whose calm presence has helped her grow more confident.
Xiao Mao is pretty well recovered, and should be ready for adoption soon. Here’s a video showing the hapless moggy:
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I have heard good things about this PBS series documenting a mountain lion and her SIX cubs. There’s a video preview below the title, but if you click on the headline, you’ll get a description of the series (no telling how many episodes there will be, and perhaps they will be free (as each is released) on the website. The link below also takes you to to awesome videos, one of Willow taking down a huge elk—much bigger than she—right in front of their den. The other here, shows a warmer-weather hunt. Don’t miss the two videos. As PBS notes:
Mountain lions risk everything to hunt elk, prey more than twice their size. After ten years of monitoring mountain lions in Montana, this crew has captured this behavior on camera only four times.
From the PBS blurb:
A unique, decade-long mountain lion study uses a vast network of over 200 trail cameras scattered throughout Montana’s Sapphire Mountains to piece together the story of a female mountain lion named Willow and her kittens. The film weaves together footage of mountain lions and their complex interactions with each other. Witness an epic saga about life and death that contains never-before-captured events and behaviors at every turn.
And a preview from YouTube. Remember, the series starts on Wednesday.
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Lagniappe: Here’s a video of act who, six months ago, was cited by Guinness as having the world’s longest tail: 46.99 cm (18.5 inches). However, a new reddit post (it has two photos) says that a black cat named Xûr has the longest tail the poster ever saw. Unfortunately, no measurements were provided, but you can see Xûr’s story at Newsweek and I’ve put one photo from reddit below.
Lagniappe: From reddit user MeowntyPython, the six-month-old cat (no tail measurements provided). A measurement is in order in a few months!
h/t: Norm, Ginger K.
I doubt Trump ever liked ANY animal of any kind, with the sole exception of men who kiss his behind and Eastern European supermodels.
I have noticed, however, that among more normal people who do like pets, some cat lovers dislike are at least feel indifferent to dogs, and vice versa.
Personally I’m more like St. Francis loving the critters. For a profound relationship with a creature who is friend, brother or sister, lover (Platonically speaking), soulmate, comrade, and fellow traveler in the world, for me it is usually a dog or more rarely a human.
But I like cats too. If a cat wants to be friends I am happy to offer sincere friendship.
I once also made friends with a very sweet female Indian elephant. I briefly dated a lady who trained a very smart male sea lion to perform tricks at an aquarium in Suffolk County, Long Island. So I had an opportunity to make friendly acquaintance with that interesting creature. You may consider me a pinnipedophile.
Can’t believe there aren’t more comments about these wonderful stories today!
What better use for Gracie Mansion could there be than to have part of it dedicated as a home for down-on-their-luck cats?? They would never wreck the building, tear up the rose garden, or try to make a monument to themselves.
Those tails are awesome, and I’m curious to learn how long the one on the black cat is. It almost looks fake.
Thanks so much for the story of the cat from China. She deserves a loving home with her moggy friend. And thank you to that rescue service for saving traumatized cats and dogs. Xiao Mao’s story reminds me of that about the cat who survived for about 60 days in a high rise in Kyiv (https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/for-60-days-this-cat-survived-on-the-7th-floor-of-a-destroyed-building-in-ukraine-1.7154964). She must have had some source of water, but was extremely dehydrated and in poor condition, but fortunately she survived.
Not so fast! I think he is uncultured and perhaps not very bright, but I don’t dislike him. There is a peculiar sincerity to even his moments of insincerity.
Did you mean to disparage dogs when you referred to a putative Trump dog as servile? I will never forget how my recently deceased (he was 16) Pyrenees mix jumped on my aunt’s bed to console her, when she was dying.
Poor Xiao Mao- what a terrifying adventure she had. An uplifting story that she survived and will have a home with her buddy.
Love both cats and dogs! Figures Trump doesn’t like cats, they’re too independent.
Great roundup.
🐈🐈🐕🐕