Mystery Portrait of ‘Working Cat Minou’ Appears in Pentagon K9 Tribute, Shortly After Milley Painting Vanished
by Susan Katz Keating
The portrait of a military working cat is part of a display honoring police dogs at the Pentagon. The portrait, a dignified portrayal of “Minou,” shows the gray tabby wearing a collar with a badge labelled “Feline Unit.” The badge contains the image of a paw.
The only issue? Cats are not employed by the Pentagon for any official duties.
The animal portraits appear to be large stickers made from photographs. They are affixed to a wall in Corridor 10, on the third floor of the Pentagon’s E Ring, just ahead of the hallway for the office of the Secretary of Defense.
The mysterious cat portrait is stuck to the wall below what appears to be a box housing a fire extinguisher, and is located between the official portraits for Military Working Dogs “Henry” and “Sky.”
The name “Minou” is French for “Kitty,” and sometimes is used with a vulgar meaning.
The existence of the cat portrait was revealed to Soldier of Fortune on Tuesday, a day after it emerged that the Pentagon took down the portrait of retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, less than two weeks after unveiling it. That painting, which hung inside the Joint Chiefs hallway alongside those of other former chairmen, vanished on the same day Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States.
READ MORE: Why Did Mark Milley’s Portrait Go MIA From the Pentagon?
The canine tribute display contains images of some 20 dogs, posted in a row on the wall. The dogs work for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, a civilian organization that does what its name implies.
Each dog in the display is depicted wearing a collar with an official police dog badge attached. The image for Minou shows that the cat is of standard feline height, with its head reaching Sky’s flank while both animals are seated.
The hall display for dogs has been in place “forever,” said one person who has seen it. The image for Minou has been there for about a month, another person said.
Soldier of Fortune has viewed several images of the portraits and the hallway, and is using only the Minou image in composite form, above, in the interest of discretion.
Curiously, the cat theme appears elsewhere in messaging from the PFPA.
On the organization website, if a user enters the term “feline” in the search bar, the result comes back with a link to a page for the career description for becoming a K-9 officer.
It is not known whether the Minou portrait represents an actual cat, or if it is an artistic rendition.
The PFPA did not respond to a request for comment.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.