The Abridged version:
- Balou was elected cat mayor of the Marshall School and New Era Park neighborhoods in September and will serve a 1-year term.
- “Cats are such an important part of people’s lives in the neighborhood. … That’s how we landed on the cat mayor thing,” said Quinn Buniel, president of the Marshall-New Era Neighborhood Association.
- Balou had to turn down judging a Halloween pet costume contest due to his contentious history with dogs.
America’s politicians often come from privileged backgrounds, attend elite universities and benefit from a powerful network of associates. But Sacramento’s newest mayor has lived on the streets, has a criminal history (including breaking into a house and attacking two cats), and prefers drinking directly out of the hose to sipping Champagne.
His name is Balou, and he is the elected cat mayor of the Marshall School and New Era Park neighborhoods.
Abridged by PBS KVIE secured an interview with Balou on his porch recently, but he let his spokesperson, Robert Freitas, do most of the talking. No security detail was present; Freitas said, “Balou is his own security detail.”
Freitas is quick to refute the claim that he and his wife (and Balou’s campaign manager), Cindy, are Balou’s “owners.” They term Balou a “community cat,” as he is free to enter their home via cat door and partake of kibble, but he also frequents neighbors’ houses and porches, and is sometimes gone for days at a time.
Balou, who is believed to be 9 years old and of French Chartreux background, a breed known for a burly body and grey fur, is a striking cat with a clipped ear that is the mark of a community cat who has been neutered. Freitas attributes Balou’s late-in-life neutering by the Sacramento SPCA, facilitated by veterinarian neighbor Kat Marcil, as what turned him into the cat and politician that he is today.
“My wife will say it’s because he lost the big T, the testosterone. I think it’s because someone showed him love,” Freitas said. “He became this loving cat that is protective of us and our neighbors. … This is a redemption.”
The cat mayor election was the brainchild of two members of the Marshall-New Era Neighborhood Association, Quinn Buniel and Zach French. Marshall-New Era is a Midtown neighborhood adjacent to the perhaps more well-known Boulevard Park, and home to the historic Marshall School, currently under renovation, its most distinctive feature.
“Both Zach and I were brainstorming ideas … the neighborhood association has been doing a lot of community events lately, trying to get people involved … more than anything people like a sense of whimsy,” said Buniel, president of the MNENA. “We tried to think what’s a low-effort event where people could meet each other. Cats are such an important part of people’s lives in the neighborhood, too. That’s how we landed on the cat mayor thing.”
They floated the idea in August and it quickly took hold. By mid-September, 16 candidates (or cat-i-dates, as Buniel called them) had been nominated via email. In the leadup to the election, campaign signs and flyers began popping up all over the neighborhood, leading to spontaneous conversations between neighbors (full disclosure: this reporter is a resident of the neighborhood).
The campaign signs all struck a humorous tone, such as “Vote Satchel for mayor: You love cheese, she loves cheese, she gets you” and with a photo of Satchel reaching for a cheese plate, or a picture of cat-i-date Kiki in a suitcase that said, “Kiki for mayor: she’s going places.”
Kiki, another indoor/outdoor cat who is popular in the neighborhood, was deemed the initial front-runner by Buniel. Owner Anne Cunningham terms Kiki a “scamp” who demands to go outside at times and was once lost for three months and identified via microchip by a woman in Foothill Farms, a neighborhood about 15 miles away from Cunningham’s house. When asked about Kiki’s fifth-place loss, Cunningham sighed and said, “At the very last minute I made some signs. I should have tried harder, I suppose.”
The election took place on the weekend of Sept. 18-20. The official voting location was at The Golden Pineapple, complete with a ballot box and “I voted” stickers. In a controversial move that may draw the attention of the DOJ, the official voting age of 18 was waived and children were allowed to vote.
“We had little kids in the neighborhood telling their parents we all need to go vote,” Freitas said “So for these elementary school kids to be introduced to what voting is, what’s an election, that’s important.”
Children’s drawings of Balou are prominently displayed around the Freitas house, so it’s clear the youth vote may have contributed to Balou’s dominating win. Buniel reports that Balou received around 80 votes out of the 200-plus total votes cast.
What are Balou’s plans for his one-year term? He will host a watch party with coffee and donuts for the Nov. 21 donut half marathon, which goes past his house, and a Christmas party is a possibility. He was asked to judge the annual dog Halloween costume contest at James Marshall park but had to turn it down due to his contentious history with canines. When asked for a statement on dog/cat relations, Balou again let Freitas answer for him.
“Speaking on behalf of Balou, he has certainly toned down his feelings,” Freitas said. “He is trying to exhibit acceptance of dogs and that may be the hardest thing for him. … He likes that there are dogs, they make life interesting. And I will say he’s a big believer that the next election should be a dog mayor.”
