Cat Dies, Nation Mourns

Humphrey

It is with regret that JimmyAkin.org announces the passing of Great Britain’s "mouser-in-chief" Humphrey the Cat. If you know anyone across the pond, be sure to extend your condolences because apparently the nation is in mourning.

"The black and white one-time ‘mouser in chief’ was perhaps the most famous pet in a country of animal worshippers.

"’World of politics mourns a legend,’ headlined the Sun, Britain’s largest circulation daily newspaper.

"’It is true. We learned last week that Humphrey has died,’ a spokesman confirmed. Humphrey was thought to be 18."

"He had wandered into No. 10 Downing Street under Margaret Thatcher and remained throughout the tenure of John Major. But he was sent away to live with a civil servant in ‘retirement’ months after Tony Blair was elected in 1997."

GET THE STORY.

The famous feline was the source of a surprising number of political scandals. Conservative party members accused Prime Minister Blair of having the cat put to sleep because his wife allegedly did not like the cat. Earlier the cat was suspected of killing a robin family, sparking an official denial from the government. The Daily Planet has not been able to verify whether a state funeral for Humphrey is planned.

Am I the only one who thinks the attention from the British government and press given to the life and death of a cat is a bit bizarre? Maybe I’m just a cranky American, but not even Socks Clinton got this kind of attention from the American government and press.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

11 thoughts on “Cat Dies, Nation Mourns”

  1. Well. I live in England and I haven’t even heard about the cat in question…didn’t even know he existed. Though I will say that both the Conservatives and the press are all over Blair for just about any reason and have been for the last 18 months or more…even Labour MP’s want the PM out.
    You know last week the press was slating Blair because he stated publically that he fully expected to be judged by God on the way that he handled the whole Iraq affair…he wasn’t saying he shouldn’t be accountable to the British public…but the press just had a field day with the story.
    Funnily enough I’m currently listening to the PM wannabe, deliver the ‘budget’…I definately prefer Blair. I hate the way Gordon Brown keeps moving his lower jaw when he finishes a sentence, he looks like a cow chewing cud.
    Blair has flair and he has conviction.
    God Bless.

  2. Am I the only one who thinks the attention from the British government and press given to the life and death of a cat is a bit bizarre?
    —Hey you have to remember —this is a CAT!
    not a dog…. 🙂
    (but yes of course perhaps it is too much for any animal)

  3. Oh and remember Pope Benedict is a CAT person…
    I thought he had two dogs…or something like that…

  4. Blair? Conviction? Blair might have a conviction after the loans-for-peerages scandal. Oh, you didn’t a a conviction… Sorry.
    Cherie having the cat put to sleep? Surely she would be representing Humphrey in an action against the Government for breach of feline rights, win, and pocket the costs.
    I don’t like Brown either, but he put on a better show today than the real Blair clone, David Cameron.

  5. Dave,
    Blair = ‘a’ conviction? That was funny 🙂
    Now then, isn’t David Cameron appalling? Why he’s been voted in recent polls as being the U.K’s sexiest politician…well, it’s beyond me…he reminds me of one of those Stingray puppets, someone is pulling his strings for sure.
    God Bless.

  6. David Cameron plans to do a Tony Blair. He’s making the Tory look like New Labour, just like Blair made “New” Labour look like the Tories. It’s just more of the same ol’ thing. Moderate fiscal policy and morally anything goes.
    I say this as a Tory sympathiser. I haven’t been naturalised so I can’t vote. When I got an internship at Westminster in the early ’90s, it was Miss Widdecombe that found me a job. Scary as it may be to some, she’s a real Tory. And a real Catholic.

  7. Dave,
    Not only did I convert to Catholicism, but to Anne Widdecombeism too 🙂
    I believe that she converted to Catholicism when the whole ‘female ordination’ took off in the C of E. I gather that it was the straw that broke the camels back, so to speak.
    Truth be told, I really couldn’t abide the woman for many years – I grew up with a strong distaste for all things ‘conservative’, especially with regard to my social life and politics! (As far as I was concerned she was as big a killjoy as Mary Whitehouse)
    My father was a trade union speaker -we grew up poor and there was an undercurrent of passion in our poverty stricken community, to see the likes of Neil Kinnock overthrow Thatcher. My dad was a labour councillor who almost lost his job at one point during his 8 year stint because he put other peoples needs before his own, and as you will be aware, it isn’t a paid job, but it doesn’t stop people knocking on your door at midnight because they have dire housing needs. So, upshot is I bought into that whole Labour ethos of ‘poor man comes good’ and the conservative’s ‘rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. And shock horror after 37 years, I’m still voting Labour in!
    God Bless

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