【588期 英語時間】The life of a cat mayor
發佈時間：00:00 2021-09-02 HKT
A CAT named Stubbs, who was the elected honorary mayor of Talkeetna（塔爾基特納鎮）, in the US state of Alaska（阿拉斯加州）, died at the ripe old age of 20 when he went to sleep on 20 July 2017 and did not wake up. Although residents had been expecting it, as the beloved Stubbs made fewer and fewer public appearances due to bad health, they were still saddened by his death.
Stubbs’ family made an announcement later that same July that the yellow cat lived 20 years and three months. The statement continued, ‘‘He was a trooper until the very last day of his life; meowing at us throughout the day to pet him or to come sit on the bed with him and let him snuggle and purr for hours in our lap.’’
‘Mayor Stubbs’, as the town called him, was elected by write-in ballots in 1988, and was the ‘mayor’ of Talkeetna until his death. There is no human mayor of the town. After the election, Stubbs, who liked to drink water from a cocktail glass, soon became a tourist attraction. Like most cats, Stubbs was also partial to catnip.
In 2013, Stubbs was attacked by a dog and suffered severe injuries. Luckily, he recovered fully, but there were rumours about his death. In late 2016, he had mostly stayed home, avoiding the public because of his age.
Cats become adults at around nine months old and usually live to their teens. A 20-year-old cat is equivalent to a human 100-yearold, so Stubbs was pretty much an old grandpa by the time he passed away.
Stubbs’ owner has other cats and kittens as well, and one of the kittens, named Denali, might eventually take over as honorary mayor of the town. The family said Denali “has the exact personality as Stubbs” and “has followed in Stubbs' pawprints in just about everything”.
Vocabulary
honorary (adj) 名譽的
trooper (n) 士兵
snuggle (v) 偎依
write-in ballot (n phr) 投給非候選人的票
partial (adj) 鍾愛的
severe (adj) 嚴重的
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