Alaska is home to Stubbs, the cat who served as the honorary mayor of Talkeetna. Stubbs became associated with the small Alaskan community in 1997 and remained its best-known feline civic figure until his death in 2017.
The story is often described as a cat winning a normal municipal election, but that wording is misleading. Talkeetna is a census-designated place with a community council rather than a conventional incorporated city government, so it did not have a legally empowered mayoral office for Stubbs to hold. His position was honorary and symbolic.
Stubbs was reportedly chosen through a write-in campaign by residents who were unhappy with the available human candidates. Nagley’s General Store became his informal “mayor’s office,” and visitors came to see him as the town’s unusual celebrity. He was also known for drinking water mixed with catnip from a glass at a local restaurant.
A common mix-up is the role itself: Stubbs was not Alaska’s state mayor or a legally governing official. He was the honorary mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, a distinction that made the story famous worldwide.