Catscapades

Yesterday I wrote about the klepto cat. Some of you might have been surprised to learn that there is such a cat. Some of you are quite aware because your tabby, calico, or tortie trots off with an earring while you’re getting ready for work, or bats your toothpaste lid off the counter and under a cabinet, or pulls socks out of your drawer and scurries off with them. What makes them do that?

According to cat behaviorists and others experts, there are several possible reasons. Among them are:

• The cat wants attention.
• He’s bored.
• He simply wants to play.
• It’s his predatory nature.
• He’s stressed.

In our household, it seems to be a mix of these things. As I write this morning, Lily is batting around the end of a plastic straw I snipped off. She’s playing, but keeps engaging me—wants my attention. Every few minutes, she pushes the object under a little table and then stares at me until I dig it out for her.

Max loves to push my pen off my desk—he seems to do it for spite. “You won’t pet me right now, so I’m going to do something to get your attention.”

I also see Lily’s predatory instincts working when she brings me her toy armadillo or her baby possum toy or one of her tiny stuffed bears. She has never had the opportunity to go hunting, but it appears the instinct is a strong part of her DNA. Her stuffed toys and even some of her wand toys are always under foot. I put them in her toy basket in order to vacuum and thirty minutes later, they’re strewn all over the house again.

Sophie likes paper—she’s a shredder. When she was quite young, she figured out that when the fax machine made certain noises, it would soon spit out a fresh piece of paper. She’d rush into my office and wait for it, then grab it and promptly shred it.

The klepto cats who get the most attention, however, are those who are allowed outside to roam the neighborhood and who come home night after night with other people’s belongings. What possesses them to walk into someone’s yard and pick up a flip-flop, a bathing suit, or a baseball cap and carry the awkward thing home? Predatory instincts? Boredom? I suppose the cat gets a lot of attention when his family gets up each morning and discovers his stash. Maybe the cat is simply a good networker and he’s trying to bring folks together. Some owners of cat burglars spend their weekends wandering the neighborhood trying to return the items taken. And as one man said after his cat came home with a package of Viagra and a tube of jock itch medicine, “You certainly get to know something about your neighbors when you have a klepto cat.”

If the klepto cat concept fascinates you, you might be interested in reading my Klepto Cat Mysteries. Rags, an ordinary cat with an extraordinary habit keeps things lively in the Ivey household. Learn more here: http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2

Love the Klepto Cat Mystery book covers? They’re originals from Bernadette Kazmarski. You can order note cards with three of the covers. Great for sending notes of appreciation and other greetings and they make lovely gifts. https://matilijapress.com/shop/product/klepto-cat-mystery-note-cards

As you know, I write cozy mysteries with cats. The primary cat character is Rags, a klepto cat. That’s right, he takes things. While my stories are purely fiction, the concept is valid. There are cat burglars and I’ve been interested in their stories for years.

Lily sneaking a treat

When our very own tabby, Lily started showing signs of being a klepto, I was fascinated. She’s a totally indoor cat, so she doesn’t burgle the neighborhood. But she has confiscated several of my stuffed animals, a few socks and she’s tried to run off with jewelry, magnets off the fridge and even paper money. It’s so cute to see her walking around the house carrying her little toys in her mouth. Mainly, she focuses on redecorating the house with them. She has a basket full of stuffed toys—a baby possum, small hedgehog, mice, birds, bears, fish, etc—and she delights in depositing them throughout the house in strategic places. When we get up in the morning, her toys are usually lined up across the doorway to the bedroom. When I’m working, she’ll bring me one toy after another and drop them at my feet…always with a little “prrrrt” sound. I’m pretty sure she’d be a bona fide cat burglar—or klepto cat—if she were allowed to roam the neighborhood.

Sophie retrieving a fax

What do true cat burglars do? Tigger lives with a police officer in Oregon and he evidently faithfully brings his person all kinds of items he finds at night, including kids’ homework and even, once, a bag of pot. Well, sounds like he was trying to do what Rags, in my Klepto Cat Mysteries does regularly, help the police department with their investigations.

Dusty, a California klepto, brings his owners underwear, Frisbees, bathing suits, and other things way too numerous to mention. He even drug home a pair of pajama bottoms one night.

Snorri is another Oregon resident. This cat has sticky paws and his favorite things to lift are flip-flops. He’s also been known to take stuffed animals, garden gloves, hats, etc. I saw a picture of his “parent” pushing a large wheelbarrow full of the things he’d taken—mainly mismatched flip-flops. This family attached a collar camera to Snorri in hopes that it would help them find the owners of all these things.

Winfield playing with a strawberry

The activities of a klepto cat are humorous and fun to talk about, but in reality, I’m not a fan of cats being let out-of-doors—especially at night. Even my fictitious cat, Rags, is an indoor cat. Oh, he has a harness and leash he wears when they take him for his beloved walks. And, certainly, he has sneaky ways of escaping sometimes, in order to enrich a storyline. But he also finds plenty of opportunities to exercise his thieving ways indoors—when people visit and leave their purses and jackets lying around, for example. Where there’s a will, there’s a way—especially in fiction.

Do you know a klepto cat or one like Lily, who carries her toys around in her mouth and sometimes deposits them in interesting place—in shoes, on the bed, in front of the fridge, in her water bowl (what’s that about?), and, of course, on the path I take to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Ever step on a squeaky toy in the dark?

I’ll wait here for your comments about your klepto cat experiences and your comments about my Klepto Cat Mysteries—all 12 are available here: http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2