The town of Idyllwild in California has a unique mayor — an 8-year-old Golden Retriever Dog Mayor.
About Mayor Max
As he is popularly known, Mayor Max has been the Mayor of this town for almost his entire life. He began his term as Mayor when he was only a two-month-old puppy. The full name of the dog mayor is Maximus, The Mighty Dog Mueller II.
Mayor Max’s pet parent is Phyllis Mueller, who also has a unique job of serving as the chief of staff for the Mayor of Idyllwild. Meuller says that Max has been Mayor pretty much his whole life. He loves his job since he is fond of people and all the attention he gets. He even likes to pose for photographs and knows exactly what to do when he’s out with the public.
How was the Mayor elected?
Idyllwild’s local animal rescue committee started the first campaign to elect a mayor. The only condition was that humans could not run in the elections, but they were most welcome to register their pets.
This current dog mayor is named after Maximus the Mighty Dog Mueller, the winner of the first election and Mueller’s former pet who passed away. Since the golden retriever was hugely popular in the locality, Mueller wanted to find another retriever sharing Max 1’s bloodline who would serve as the next Mayor.
That’s how Max II came into the picture. He was accepted immediately by the community.
Wait, there are Deputy Mayors too?
The new Mayor Max has two other retrievers in the Mayor committee with Deputy Mayor Mikey and Deputy Mayor Mitzey, who are all blood relatives of the first Max. These three puppies helped the original Mayor Max complete his first term. After which, they got elected for life in the third election. Riverside accepted and gave recognition to Max as their Mayor of the country.
What do these ‘Dog’ Mayors do?
A typical day for Mueller and her dog mayor and deputy dog mayors includes being the town’s goodwill ambassadors. They do activities like visiting hospice organizations, hospitals, and homes, greeting tourists and locals. They try to do as many good things as they possibly can. Mueller is happy to reveal that Mayor Maz has a high approval rating, and his office is non-political and non-partisan.
Mayor Max doesn’t know who Republicans or Democrats are and loves everyone unconditionally. Doing good and kind deeds is what Mayor Max’s office works towards every day.
Keep up with the Dog mayor on Instagram @mayormax1
Also See: Man’s Best Friend Is Empowering And Defending Young Women.
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