Who is Larry the cat’s family?

[Bleurfghjj]

Just seen mention of Larry the cat making an appearance for the first cabinet meeting. But… does someone live and sleep there continuously with him? Does he have a family? Is he a lone ranger, does he live independently? What’s the deal?

There was Freya too. She was George Osborne's cat and was briefly given Larry's job because Larry was being rubbish at catching mice.
Freya sadly has passed away now.

@its2024 apparently there's a cat flap round the back.
But Larry - being a cat - prefers the front door 😂

larry for pm!

OP, just for thinking about this you are a woman after my own heart. Dd and I were discussing this yesterday: who is there for him consistently given the comings and goings of PMs.

There are staff their 24 hours a day-they are his family!

❤️❤️❤️

I think he waits to be let in, goes straight out of the cat flap and round to the front door to be let in again.

@FOJN probably 😂

Larry is very looked after by all of the household staff of number 10, the police (as shown by the twitter video), and most PM's and their families have also engaged with him.

He wants for nothing, he maybe not the greatest mouser, but he has a fabulous life.

Larry tweeted on 5th July

A relative of mine used to work at Downing Street (Cameron era) so we got to have a private tour. We met Larry too.

The staff loved him and looked after him really well. His food bowls were in the staff kitchen, tucked under the countertop, so he's definitely part of the day to day household.

He had a crochet blanket that lived on one the window sills of the entrance hall so he could sit and watch everything that was going on. The gentlemen who's job it was open the door were all very fond of him.

All in all he seemed to have a lovely life and I'm sure that's still the case.

Also Larry and his food and care is not paid for by the tax payer but through staff donations.

@Bleurfghjj I think the only reason he shouldn't actually be PM is he is quite an elderly gentleman now and doesn't need the stress.

Yes, I went to the Foreign Office when Palmerston was there and he was so fussed over that there were notices about not giving him too many treats. And he was very big (I got to give him a cuddle too!)

I thought there have been several Larrys over the years

Who runs his Twitter account, I wonder? (Is it some official Downing St or Civil Service person who does it with permission - as I expect - not just a random person doing a parody account)

And I wonder how free he is to roam the neighbourhood and whether he visits any other houses/offices/departments to get fed several times!

And whether he has free run of the house, including the flats of No 10 and 11 (I think I read it's all connected inside by interior passages etc?)

The one before Harry was Humphrey, he died in 2006, but he did not have an official title!

Whoever adopted a male cat thinking it would be a good mouser should not be in charge of the country.

That is so true.

This is what our cat does in our slightly more humble house 😂

Jealous of folks who have met Larry and the other Downing Street cats.

Wish he'd been sitting there when Rishi did his leaving speech, washing his arse in the background.

Surely he's on the Civil Service payroll!

@KnickerlessParsons there's only one Larry.
There's always been cats there.
Humphrey was one that lived there when Thatcher was there, then John Major and then the Blairs.
Allegedly Cheri Blair doesn't like cats so Humphrey was retired.

There WERE rumours that David Cameron didn't like Larry but he put paid to those rumours in his resignation speech

here

I am guessing that although we might see Starmer as the new resident of number 10, in reality for Larry, Starmer is just one of many people who hang around his house. I imagine that the police are there all the time plus there will be a contingent of household staff. The civil servants who work there will all remain the same for the moment and will be there whenever they work. It will just be the political advisors on the politicians who will change. They probably aren't the primary people in Larry's life. Cats don't seem to recognise the relevance of being on the electoral roll. Even in our household some regular visitors hold a higher status than some residents. Possibly on a wet Sunday afternoon when there aren't many people around Larry might deign to be stroked by Starmer but I imagine he has other primary slaves most of the week.