Governor Andrew Cuomo’s dog, Captain, also behaves like a junk dog.
People working for the disgraced Cuomo exchanged horror stories about the former governor’s dog while The Post saw maintenance workers on Tuesday moving the captain’s dog house from the backyard of the executive mansion.
Interactions with the dog, a northern Inuit breed, even became a source of controversy in Cuomo’s memoirs about the COVID-19 pandemic, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Larry Schwartz, a trusted man and executor of Cuomo, was upset to be portrayed in the book as a frightened cat in dealing with the captain.
“The captain took a somewhat hostile stance toward Larry,” Cuomo said.
“I would set up locks to allow Larry the free pass without meeting the captain, but never with much success.”
Schwartz, known for his tough personality, sent a nasty note to current SUNY Chancellor James Malatras and Gareth Rhodes, both Cuomo advisers who helped with the book, to protest the negative representation.
“I thought you were my friends. Friends see each other’s backs, ”Schwartz told Malatras and Rhodes, sources familiar with the exchange said.
He also expressed his displeasure against Cuomo’s secretary Melissa DeRosa and executive secretary Stephanie Benton, sources said.
At the time, Schwartz was the head of the state’s coronavirus contract screening program and later oversaw the distribution of vaccines. But the only mention in the book was above all of his icy relationship with the captain.
DeRosa tried to smooth things over, putting Malatras and Rhodes “in charge of fixing Larry.”
A former administration official said Schwartz was “upset,” but added, “I’m not sure if he was joking or really.”
Schwartz declined to comment.
Cuomo’s informant said the dog was too aggressive to be close to the mansion’s guests, including members of the governor’s staff.
“The captain was terrible. It bit me, ”the source said.
“It simply came to our notice then. You couldn’t even walk beside him. “
Meanwhile, the mansion staff “always put him in the cage or had to stop him. I’m a public official who buys my clothes at Macy’s, I can’t get a dog to attack me and rip my clothes off, ”the official said.
And the former Cuomo staff member added, “The dog was a bit iconic: he looks great in a tweet but has a lot of problems.”
The source even recalled that the captain had a massive rash problem, which required him to shave his hair back.
“I could never be around people: guests at the mansion or people in general. You would like clothes or hands. He was aggressive. When going up from the car park, we had to make sure that it was not loose ”.
The captain’s dog house was in the garden just in front of the kitchen exit, in a “separate area for you to run.”
“The problem was that if you wanted to run to your car, he would come after you and you had to run back to the house for someone to catch him,” the source said.
The captain’s whim comes as the whereabouts of the best governor and perhaps only the friend remained a mystery.
Cuomo, in a tweet On Monday night, he said, the captain “is part of our family and will always be so.”
But the former governor posted an old photo of him with his three daughters and Cuomo’s captain and camp refused to answer questions Tuesday about the dog’s whereabouts.
The former governor clashed with published reports suggesting he was getting rid of the dog.
Cuomo resigned as governor effectively on Tuesday after an alleged investigation report released by state Attorney General Letitia James found that he was sexually harassing 11 women, including current and former officials. He has denied the allegations.