It’s A Dog’s Life for This Special Cat

There are many things that are quintessentially feline, and it’s fair to say that hard work is not usually on the list. However, at a time when boundaries are being broken and stereotypes are shattered, one cat is making his mark as a mustering enthusiast.

Mango’s unusual lifestyle came to light when cattle farmer Beck Smith posted a video surveying the flood damage on her 130,000-acre beef cattle station west of Stonehenge, a tiny dot on the map in western Queensland, Australia. This is about as ‘outback’ as you can get. Far from being a typical influencer, Beck had no intention of getting into the social media game.

“I never thought I would create a page such as this, but here I am and here we are.” 

You might wonder why the appearance of a cat – even one as adorable as Mango – would cause such a stir in the feline-saturated online community. Mango isn’t just your typical ‘lay around and watch the others work’ type of cat; Mango gets in amongst it. If there’s mustering to be done, he is right there on the back of the truck, the front of the ATV, or perched on the handlebars of the dirt bike, ready to get going.

Mango joined Beck when he was around eight weeks old and has grown up surrounded by her working Border Collies, so getting down and dusty on the farm is nothing new to this little feline. Despite his very dog-like characteristics and work ethic, Mango hasn’t completely abandoned his heritage. According to Beck, “he is very much a cat, so Mango does what Mango wants.”

More Than Just a Pretty Face

The sheer entertainment value of seeing a cute kitty riding shotgun on a quad bike might be reason enough to join the growing number of fans following Mango and the crew on their Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts, but there is much more to this story.

While Mango might be a cat in a dog-dominated field, his designated human, Beck, is a woman in a very male-dominated career, living season-to-season in an unforgiving environment. Outback Australia is an area of climate extremes, where you can be looking at your livestock struggling to survive months without a drop of rain one minute, only to be facing devastating floods the next. The increased interest and traffic that Mango has brought to Beck’s social media pages has created an opportunity to raise awareness about the struggles faced by people living on remote properties, as well as provided a conduit for talking about a subject often considered to be taboo in the farming world: mental health, something she discussed with Hannah Walsh from the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) earlier this month.

“People on the land don’t like to be seen as having any weaknesses because you’ve got to be tough, you’ve got to be able to handle everything that life throws at you.”

And if you’re a woman, the pressure to succeed is even greater.

“Whatever a man does, you have to do it twice as hard and tough as what they do,” says Beck. “I’m expected to bake the cake and be a bush mechanic too.”

Mango’s role on the property may not be quite as hands (or paws) on as that of the herding dogs, but it is no less important. Having “a lovely little fluffy cat with personality, it draws people in,” said Beck. “People are laughing at him and his antics, but then they are also seeing what we’re going through as well.”

In a world that can often feel isolated and overwhelming, providing emotional support and raising awareness might not feel too taxing to this feline, but we think he’s doing one heck of a job.

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