Cat defeats 13 dogs, a peacock and goat to become mayor of this Michigan town

Here’s what happens when a town elects a cat as its mayor.

News people litter the story with puns.

(Us included.)

“We’re not kitten you,” the Detroit Free Press promised in reporting that tiny Omena, Michigan has elected a 9-year-old cat as its mayor.

She has “pawfect style,” the newspaper gushed.

The cat named Sweet Tart vanquished 13 dogs, a peacock, a goat, a chicken and another cat to become mayor, according to WPBN in Traverse City, Michigan.

She was inaugurated on Saturday and took a victory lap in her pet carrier set inside a little red wagon. One TV reporter shoved a microphone in her face and asked what changes she planned to make around the town.

Sweet Tart just stared with no-comment eyes.

Omena, a northwest Michigan town of about 250 to 300, people in Leelanau County, has had ceremonial mayors with more than two legs for more than a decade, according to WPBN.

The election is run by the Omena Historical Society, which posts photos of the candidates on its website and collects $1 for each vote, money that goes to its endowment fund.

“This is by far our largest total,” Keith Disselkoen, the society’s president, told WPBN of this year’s election take of more than $7,000.

“We suspect that there were many votes coming from outside of the immediate area because of our internet reach and because of our publicity and because of the ability to receive votes from PayPal. It’s really expanded the number of people that have participated.”

Madame Mayor’s winning resume looked like this on the society’s website:

She is the cat daughter of Harold and Kanda McKee.

“I served from 2012-2015 on the Omena Village Council, and from 2015-2018 as Omena Vice Mayor,” she “wrote.”

“While I’m home schooled, I graduated first in my class!”

Her favorite foods are duck and peas. She confesses to no “naughty deeds.” And her “pet peeve” is people thinking that she’s stuck up. “I’m really just shy,” her bio claims.

She argued that she should be elected because she has experience “governing/supervising” her household and her name pays homage to the cherries Michigan is known for - sweet and tart.

She is hardly the first animal to hold public office in America

Others have gone before, including Stubbs the cat in Alaska and a famous beer-swilling billy goat named Henry in Texas.

A Great Pyrenees named Duke served four years as mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota before he retired last month. Rumor has it a “tell-all” biography is coming, ABC 7 in Chicago reported.

Because no one is really a loser in Omena’s election, Sweet Tart’s competitors were given seats on the city council.

According to the society’s website, Diablo Shapiro, a dog “born near the border in Texas,” is now first vice mayor.

Punkin Anderson-Harden, a dog currently enrolled in “Sit 202, Stay 201, Beach walking 201, Shake 101 (and) a repeat course of Come 101.” is second vice mayor.

Harley Jones, a goat, is press secretary.

Penny Labriola, a chicken, is “special assistant for fowl issues.”

Penny was given a special title because of all the candidates, she was the only candidate owned by a child.

Sweet Tart and the rest of the council will remain in office for three-year terms, according to the Free Press

As for the signing of official documents, “we accept paw prints,” Disselkoen told WPBN..

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 5:20 PM.