BEING TAOISEACH HAS its perks. Sure you’re met with criticism everywhere you turn as you attempt to deal with the problems of the nation.

But every so often you get to open a veterinary hospital and who wouldn’t relish the opportunity to meet a few animals being nursed back to health?

Just like this dog , ‘Skip’, whom Enda Kenny was enthusiastically stroking at the opening of the hospital at the DSPCA campus in Rathfarnham in Dublin today:

Skip was quite enjoying it:

Though we’re not sure how much he enjoyed this:

After he was done with the puppy, the Taoiseach moved on to the cats and he sure was pleased to meet this white creature who was too busy posing for the camera to notice THE LEADER OF THE COUNTRY:

Then there was this guy, ‘Timmy the Cat’ is his name:

He has a broken leg so they checked out his x-ray:

Enda was too busy assessing the bone damage to notice that Timmy was totally photo-bombing him:

All in all, a good day out.

The new veterinary hospital is part of a social enterprise initiative undertaken by the DSPCA to help it become partially self-sustaining in the long term.

All photos from Mark Stedman of Photocall Ireland.

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