Meet Boots, our newest diplocat
Kiwi mog Boots has taken up residence as our feline High Commissioner in London, helping our diplomatic team represent New Zealand on the world stage.
His official duties have included encouraging Kiwis to vote – and engaging in cat-to-cat dialogue with Palmerston, the resident mouser at the UK Foreign Office.
Boots is also responsible for meeting and greeting visitors at the High Commissioner’s residence, and supervising the household.
He follows in the footsteps of Paddles, the polydactyl cat belonging to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and who entertains Twitter followers with regular updates.
Boots is a late traveller, having spent most of his life in New Zealand, where his most-recent position was as resident cat at Government House.
After being recovered from a Kapiti SPCA 13 years ago, he moved to London with Sir Jerry and Lady Janine Mateparae after our former governor-general took up a new post as High Commissioner to the UK.
‘‘Albeit in his senior years, Boots was ready to do his OE, and with both Luke and his brother Sam currently studying at university it was a foregone conclusion for Boots to travel with us,’’ Mateparae said.
Boots went to the UK under the Pet Transfer Scheme in early May 2017, with the Mateparae family expenses.
The 14-year-old short-haired ginger suffered some jetlag when he first arrived in London, but Mateparae said he was ‘‘feline settled now’’.
‘‘He is enjoying being in London, and the different sights, sounds and smells here.’’
Boots’ arrival in London did not go unnoticed by the local British moggies. covering his relocation Palmerston, a rescue cat who is now the resident mouser at the UK Foreign Office, tweeted he was ‘‘extending welcome paws to Boots’’, and greeted him as a ‘‘fellow diplomog’’.
Despite his increased profile Boots is yet to visit the Queen, meaning any mice under her chair are safe for now. ‘‘Boots has not been to the palace, and is not expecting an invitation anytime soon,’’ he said.