I told my wife Susan and Rosalita that I planned to go to Bay City yesterday to photograph President Biden, who was visiting a new microchip manufacturing plant.
“I want to go!” Rosalita chirped.
This was astonishing. Rosalita does not like riding in a car. She howls the whole way going to the vet, which is only two miles. I told her it was a two-hour drive each way, and that she’d have to wait many hours before we returned home.
“No,” she said firmly. “I want to see the President.”
“They won’t let you in, Rosalita,” I explained. “You need to give the Secret Service your date of birth and social security number for a security check. We don’t know when you were born, and you have no social security number.”
“You leave that to me,” she said with a little smile. “Cat security is different.”
The drive was uneventful. Rosalita curled up and slept.
In Bay City, I grabbed my camera gear and joined the security line. Rosalita disappeared. I did catch a glimpse of her slipping through an open door, but once inside the huge factory, I never saw her.
After much waiting, Biden finally appeared. The hall was packed, mostly with union members. I started shooting, though in the back of my mind I was worried about Rosalita. I hadn’t seen her for hours.
But then, suddenly, there she was, sitting alertly on the stage next to the President.
Biden was talking about creating more good-paying manufacturing jobs when he noticed her. “Well, hello kitty,” he said.
A secret service agent came running and reached for Rosalita.
“No, let her stay,” the President said. He crouched down and extended the microphone. “What do you have to say for yourself, kitty?”
This was her chance. “Meow, Mr. President. I come on behalf of the railroad workers, who have voted against their proposed contract because it doesn’t give them enough time off to spend with their families, including their cats. It doesn’t give them paid sick leave, even though not one member of Congress who may vote to impose this contract gets their pay docked when they are sick. The rail industry has made $20 billion in profits this year. If you and the Congress stand on the side of the employers and make them take this contract, it won’t look good to many union members.”
The union workers filling the hall stood and cheered as Rosalita turned and strolled off the stage, her tail held high.
I finished working a couple hours later. When I got back to the car, she was there waiting.
She purred the whole way home.
Jim West has been an editorial photographer, based in Detroit, for more than 30 years. His work focuses on social issues and the labor movement. He handles assignments and also has an extensive collection of stock images available. Jim’s work has been published in major news magazines in the U.S. and abroad, in newspapers from the New York Times to Los Angeles Times, by religious organizations, environmental groups, labor unions, textbook publishers, and trade magazines.
