Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
They prowl through palace gardens stalking pigeons and make cameos on televised press briefings. Some greet tourists at the doors, while others take a sneaky lick of ice cream from staff.
Nineteen feral cats have free rein of Mexico's National Palace, long roaming the lush gardens and historic colonial halls of the most iconic buildings in the country.
“They have access to every part of the palace, so they walk in on meetings, interviews and wander onto camera," said Jesús Arias, the palace veterinarian, as a handful of feline friends brush against his ankles.
Now, the palace cats have made hiss-tory after the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared them to be “living fixed assets,” the first animals in Mexico to receive the title.
The investment term “fixed assets” usually applies to buildings and furniture, but by applying it to cats, López Obrador's government has obligated the country’s Treasury to give them food and care for them for the rest of their lives, even after the leader leaves office in October.
“The cats are now a symbol of the National Palace. Just as we understand this world, I wouldn’t understand the National Palace without the presence of these cats,” said Adriana Castillo Román, general director of the National Palace and Cultural Heritage Conservancy. “We have to make sure the cats are taken care of.”
Nestled in the heart of Mexico City, the presidential palace has long been the seat of Mexico's executive branch. Now the residence of López Obrador, it is built upon the former palace of Indigenous Emperor Moctezuma. Ironically, Moctezuma's ancient Aztec culture honoured not cats, but hairless dogs known as Xoloitzcuintle, who were even buried with their masters.
But these days, López Obrador is accompanied by Bowie, Bellof, Nube, Coco, Yema, Ollin, Balam and more, who seem to have found a purr-fect home in the building. López Obrador himself has said the cats “dominate” the palace and often walk in front of him during official ceremonies.
Some are named after artists, like an orange tabby “Bowie” named after the rockstar David Bowie, who visited the palace 1997 to see the famous mural by Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Others are named after native rocks or words in the region’s ancient Aztec language, like Ollin, which means “movement.”
Staff say they remember the feral cats living among the cacti and dense brush of the gardens as far back as 50 years ago.
But it’s unclear when they first appeared or how they even got into the building. While 19 live in the building full time, many more come and go, and staff suspect they slip under a small crack in the palace gate by night.
One cat named Zeus, who has since passed away, even became famous in July when he meandered into the president's morning press briefing. The gray cat stood in front of cameras and wandered among reporters until palace staff had to carry him off.
To avoid a cat-astrophe, Castillo said the government had to ask reporters to stop feeding Zeus because he would spend his days accepting treats from different people around the palace and was “getting really fat”.
When López Obrador first took office in 2018, Castillo said the palace pets were being fed quietly by employees.
“Some employees that like cats would bring them leftovers from home and, every once in a while, canned food or rice and soup,” Castillo said.
Palace staff worked with vets from the National Autonomous University of Mexico to vaccinate, sterilize and chip the cats, and build them little cat homes and feeding stations around the garden. They also hired Arias to take care of them on a permanent basis and give them a good life.
Neither Bowie, Coco or Ollin commented when asked how they feel about being "living fixed assets.” Coco swished his tail, while Ollin stretched out below a palace pillar and fell asleep.
“Meow,” responded Nube, a gray cat named after the Spanish word for “cloud” who enjoys greeting visitors at the door of the palace.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.
A pro-Palestinian activist group says its international co-ordinator, who was arrested in a Vancouver hate-crime investigation, was released with an order not to attend any protests for the next five months.
A Conservative MP is challenging claims by House of Commons administration that a China-backed hacking attempt did not impact any members of Parliament, because the attack was on his personal email.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.