Former prime minister Kevin Rudd must be planning to be based in New York for the long term — he’s just adopted two kittens in the Big Apple. In a photo posted to his Facebook page, Rudd says “Mei Mei and Qing Qing — sisters adopted from a rescue shelter here in NY. They are wild and loving and full of kitten antics.”
Just in case we (or the Chinese) forgot that Rudd speaks Mandarin, the names are Chinese, with “mei” meaning “beautiful”. We haven’t been able to confirm what “Qing” means, but are told that repetition of names is a common feature of nicknames or made-up names. Rudd has been based in New York for a few years now, where he is mounting his campaign for United Nations Secretary General, and while this has been confirmed by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, Rudd is yet to publicly say that is exactly what he is doing.
The fur babies must be set to stay in NY for a while — we wouldn’t want them to face the fate Barnaby Joyce threatened for Pistol and Boo. Mei Mei and Qing Qing aren’t the first black felines to be a part of the Rudd household — Jasper the cat was featured in the children’s book Rudd wrote “Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle” and passed away in 2012. “I think Jasper would approve,” Rudd wrote on Facebook today.
And in case you didn’t get enough of a look at them, here they are again:
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