Cat Who Became Town Mayor

Every politician makes promises. Speeches, ribbons, parades. But for twenty years, the most loved “mayor” in Alaska never gave a single speech, never attended a meeting, and never once stood on two legs — because he had four paws, orange fur, and no tail worth mentioning.

His name was Stubbs, and he was the honorary mayor of Talkeetna, a small town in Alaska. Yes, his title was honorary — this story needs no exaggeration, because the truth is charming enough. For two full decades, this cat was the face of his town, drawing visitors from all over the world. Here is how a kitten found in a parking lot became the most famous cat in politics.

A Kitten Found In A Parking Lot

In 1997, Lauri Stec was the manager of Nagley’s General Store in Talkeetna, a town of around 900 to 1,000 people that serves as a base for climbers heading to Denali, the highest mountain in North America. It is a quirky place — some believe Talkeetna helped inspire the fictional town of Cicely in the 1990s television show Northern Exposure — and it was about to become famous for something quirkier still. One day Stec found a box of kittens being given away in the store’s parking lot.

One kitten stood out. He was orange, part Manx, and born without a proper tail — just a small stub where a tail should be. That little stub gave him his name: Stubbs.

Nagley’s was a good home for a cat with big ambitions. The store has stood since 1921, starting life as a log cabin serving miners and trappers in Alaska’s gold rush days, and since the 1970s it had always kept a resident cat. Stubbs took the job of store cat — and very soon, a much bigger job found him.

The Election That Never Really Happened

The famous version of the story goes like this: in 1997, the people of Talkeetna were unhappy with the human candidates for mayor. So, as a joke, they wrote in the name of a certain tailless kitten on their ballots — and the kitten won. It is a wonderful story, and newspapers around the world repeated it for years, especially when national media picked up the tale in 2012.

Now the honest part, and it matters. Talkeetna is an unincorporated community — officially a historic district — and it has no real mayor’s office at all. There was no official election for Stubbs to win. NPR, the American public radio network, checked the story and pointed out just that: a town with no real mayor could not have held a mayoral election.

So the title was honorary — a loving nickname a town gave to its store cat. But do not let the word “honorary” fool you into thinking it meant nothing. From 18 July 1997 until his death in 2017, Stubbs truly was Talkeetna’s figurehead, the small orange ruler everybody recognised.

Twenty Years In The Mayor’s Office

Mayor Stubbs’s office was Nagley’s General Store itself, and his working day would make any politician jealous. He greeted shoppers, posed for endless photographs, and received fan mail — he was flooded with cards and letters from admirers. Some 30 to 40 tourists a day would come hoping to meet the mayor of Talkeetna, many of them passing through on their way to Denali.

Every afternoon, he made his way to the restaurant next door, the West Rib, for his official refreshment: water mixed with catnip, served to him in a wine glass or a margarita glass. Then, the heavy work of government done, he would settle down for a nap.

People at the store used to joke that he was close to the perfect mayor — he never raised taxes, and he never interfered with anyone’s business. He simply ruled by being there, being orange, and being utterly unbothered by fame.

The Mayor Who Used Up His Nine Lives

Stubbs’s long career nearly ended several times, because he seemed determined to spend all nine of his lives.

He was shot at by teenagers with BB guns, and recovered. He once fell into a restaurant’s deep fryer — a disaster avoided only because the fryer was switched off and cold at the time. Another day he climbed onto a garbage truck and rode it all the way to the edge of town before anyone discovered him and brought him home.

The worst scare came on 31 August 2013, when a dog mauled him badly. Stubbs was rushed to a veterinary hospital about 70 miles away in Wasilla, suffering from a punctured lung, a fractured sternum, and a deep gash in his side that needed stitches. He spent nine days in hospital. Fans set up a fund for his treatment, and donations arrived from around the world — so much money came in that after his bills were paid, the extra was given to an animal shelter and the local veterinary clinic.

A Joke That Reached The United States Senate

By then, Stubbs’s fame had grown far beyond one small town. In 2014, during a bitter United States Senate election in Alaska, he was featured in a protest effort urging unhappy voters to write his name on their ballots instead, and he even appeared in a video criticising both of the main human candidates.

Not every voice was charmed — at least one opinion writer in Alaska grumbled that the whole cat-mayor saga was a fairy tale the media had swallowed too easily. And in the narrowest sense, he had a point: there was never an official mayor’s chair. But there was a real cat, a real store, a real town that loved him, and real visitors who travelled across the world to shake his paw. That part was never a fairy tale at all.

The End Of A Twenty-Year Rule

By 2015, old age was slowing the mayor down, and he appeared in public less and less. On 21 July 2017, Stubbs died at the age of 20. News of his death travelled around the world, and his owners said he had been a trooper right up to the end of his life.

The mayor’s office, however, did not stay empty for long. Stubbs’s owners suggested that another of the family’s cats, a youngster named Denali, might one day step into the role. In time, Nagley’s younger store cats — twins named Aurora and Denali — were named the town’s new honorary mayors, carrying on the tradition Stubbs started. Denali died in 2022, and Aurora continues to serve from her office at the store, receiving visitors who still come to Talkeetna asking to meet the mayor.

Stubbs never passed a law, never signed a paper, and never pretended to be anything but a cat. Yet for twenty years he did something many human politicians never manage: he made his town proud, made strangers smile, and gave a tiny community in Alaska a story the whole world wanted to hear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Stubbs officially elected mayor of Talkeetna? No. The write-in election is the famous version of the story, but Talkeetna is an unincorporated community with no real mayor’s post, so there was no official election. His title of mayor was honorary.

Where was Mayor Stubbs’s office? Nagley’s General Store in Talkeetna, Alaska, where he lived and greeted visitors. Every afternoon he visited the West Rib restaurant next door for his catnip water.

How did Stubbs get his name? He was a part-Manx kitten born without a proper tail — only a little stub. The store manager who adopted him, Lauri Stec, named him Stubbs because of it.

What happened to Stubbs in 2013? A dog attacked him, leaving him with a punctured lung and a fractured sternum. He was treated at a veterinary hospital in Wasilla, recovered after nine days, and fans around the world donated more than enough to cover his care.

Who is the mayor of Talkeetna now? After Stubbs died in 2017 at the age of 20, Nagley’s younger store cats, Aurora and Denali, were named the new honorary mayors. Denali died in 2022, and Aurora continues the tradition at the store.

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Stubbs (cat)”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stubbs_(cat)
• Atlas Obscura, “The Cat Mayor of Talkeetna”: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cat-mayor-talkeetna-alaska
• The picture on this page is an original illustration made for Talha M Blog.