North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper adopts stray kitten found hiding at executive mansion
A stray kitten who serendipitously stumbled upon the right property has become the latest furry addition to the first family of North Carolina.
The tiny feline was found hiding in the garage at the North Carolina governor's mansion, according to the Facebook page First Pets of North Carolina, which chronicles the lives of the animals living with Gov. Roy Cooper and his family.
They "don't know where she came from or how she got there," according to the Facebook post.
North Carolina's first family decided to adopt the black kitten with brown markings and name it Jenny, after the "Cats" character Jennyanydots.
Jenny's personality probably made it difficult for the Coopers to turn her away. She is described as friendly and talkative, and already one of her favorite past times is "hunting" patterns on carpets lining the mansion floors.
The "cuddly and "affectionate" kitten has been "fitting in well" in the Cooper household, Ilina Ewen, chief of staff to North Carolina first lady Kristin Cooper, told ABC News.
"She's been getting lots of love and attention" and "purrs a lot," Ewen said.
Jenny has had her full veterinarian workup and a bath to get rid of fleas and is scheduled to receive her shots, Ewen said. She's so smart that the first lady considers her as "a little pocket accessory," Ewen said.
The Coopers' love for animals is evident on the social media page dedicated to their pets.
Among the brood are:
A rescue dog named Ben
Jenny has been "wary" of Ben, the grand-dog who belongs to the couple's daughter, Hilary Cooper, Ewen said.
"Even though he's sweet and gentle, he's so much bigger than she is," she said.
A black cat named Alexei
A long-haired cat named Adelaide
Last year, the Coopers' dog of 16 years, Chloe, died on the same day their daughter graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to the family.
"As I entered into the last hard year of the campaign for Governor in 2016, I told Chloe that even though she was old and not at the top of her game, she needed to live at least through Election Day," Roy Cooper wrote in a tribute to the pup on Facebook. "I told her she needed to do that for me. She heard me and did her job. And she decided to live on to see the inauguration and spend time in that big Executive Mansion where the food was pretty good."
