Paddles (2016 – 7 November 2017) was a ginger and white

polydactyl cat A polydactyl cat is a cat with a congenital physical anomaly called polydactyly (also known as polydactylism or hyperdactyly), which causes the cat to be born with more than the usual number of toes on one or more of its paws. Cats with this ...

owned by New Zealand Prime Minister

Jacinda Ardern Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician and activist who was the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was ...

and her partner Clarke Gayford. Paddles had a profile on Twitter and was known in politics as the "First Cat".

Biography

Paddles was a rescue cat, adopted by Ardern from a branch of the SPCA. She became a celebrity as the "First Cat" after Ardern took office, and a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account was established in her name. Ardern said that she did not know who created the account. When U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

phoned Ardern to congratulate her for becoming Prime Minister in October 2017, Paddles interrupted the conversation. Paddles was run over by a car and killed in the

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

suburb of Point Chevalier on 7 November 2017.

References

2016 animal births 2017 animal deaths 2017 in New Zealand Animals on the Internet Individual animals in New Zealand Individual cats in politics Jacinda Ardern Pets of world leaders Road incident deaths in New Zealand {{cat-stub

Biography

See also

References