Britain’s top feline diplomat has come out of retirement for a new, “purr-fect” job.
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Palmerston, former chief mouser at the Foreign Office, is now Britain’s chief four-legged representative in Bermuda.
The news, posted on Wednesday on Palmerston’s official DiploMog account on social network X, comes more than four years after it was announced that he was retiring from public life to a “quieter and easier” life in the countryside.
On retirement, Palmerston was adopted by Foreign Office diplomat Andrew Murdoch, who has now been appointed governor of Bermuda, a tiny British territory in the mid-Atlantic.
“Diplomacy and a purr-fect role have lured me out of retirement,” the post said. “I’ve just started work as feline relations consultant (semi-retired) to the new Governor of Bermuda. I’ve been busy meeting very welcoming Bermudians.”
![Palmerston, who is named after the longest-serving British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, arrived in government in April 2016 as a rescue cat. Photo: AP Palmerston, who is named after the longest-serving British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, arrived in government in April 2016 as a rescue cat. Photo: AP](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2025/02/06/9ff593d4-4f1f-4e21-a641-d1d967b747cf_2a48f19f.jpg)
The Foreign Office said Palmerston “will attend only the meetings he deems important, offering advice when necessary and indulging in well-earned naps.”