PURR-FECT POSITION

U.K.’s Top Diplo-Cat Palmerston Comes Out of Retirement

In a humorous X post the U.K.’s former ‘chief mouser’ has relocated overseas for a new job.

The chief mouser of the U.K.’s Foreign Office is back on the job, he has announced in an X post. Palmerston the cat had retired from patrolling the London headquarters of Britain’s equivalent of the State Department, but his account has revealed a change in his plans. “Diplomacy and a purr-fect role have lured me out of retirement. I’ve just started work as feline relations consultant (semi-retired) to the new Governor of Bermuda. I’ve been busy meeting very welcoming Bermudians.” The Foreign Office added that Palmerston “will attend only the meetings he deems important, offering advice when necessary and indulging in well-earned naps.” Palmerston, named after Lord Palmerston, a Victorian who was Britain’s longest serving foreign secretary, was adopted by Foreign Office diplomat Andrew Murdoch after the cat retired in 2020. Murdoch has now been appointed governor of Bermuda, which explains the relocation. Palmerston was taken in by the Foreign Office as a rescue cat in 2016. But he had less than friendly relations with Larry, the chief mouser at Number 10 Downing Street, across the road from the Foreign Office: the two had regularly been seen fighting.