My kitty the klepto

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

About a week ago, my cat came home with a pair of gardening gloves. I asked a couple of my neighbors if the gloves were theirs, but no takers. I forgot about it. Well, I was out of town last week and came home to find 2.5 pairs of gloves in the house, scattered at various distances from the door. And about 15 minutes ago, I hear the cat making his "mommy, look what I did cuz I looooove you" sound, and found that the count was up to 3 full pairs (and yes, they match, but appear to have been assembled one at a time). This has clearly become A Behavior.

Questions for the readers:

1) Has anyone reading this lost gardening gloves lately?
2) Any suggestions about how to identify the people whose gloves these are?
3) Any suggestions about how to help my cat understand the concept of personal property?

Comments

[lunchboy.livejournal.com]

Clearly there's something going around:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060721/ap_on_re_us/feline_felon_4

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

awwwwwwwww.
my cat growing up used to steal the sponges out of their resting place under the sink and leave them for me or my brother in our beds. it was pretty damn cute.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Ah. Thank you. I knew I'd seen a news article on that recently.

Odd. Maybe they have a pleasing texture, or the fingers are just the right size to chew on?

[tisana.livejournal.com]

"how to help my cat understand the concept of personal property?"

Hundreds of cartoonists chronicling cat habits would have me believe otherwise.

But hey, good luck if you want to try.

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

Gardening gloves are better than dead rodents.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree. However, I would imagine that were someone to have feral rodents in their home, and were said rodents to be disposed of by my kitty, the previously vermin-infested person would be pleased. While were someone desirous of taking care of the weeds that have been running rampant due to the warm, wet weather, and were that individual's gardening gloves nowhere to be found, having been absconded with by my kitty, said individual would be dismayed.

I'm just sayin'.

[othniel77.livejournal.com]

That is really funny! My cat has a shoe fetish. She has actually taken shoes and arranged them in a circle on the carpet.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Ah, but dead rodents are better than live ones in your apartment. When my cat killed the two of them? Good kitty.

[jwinter.livejournal.com]

"Okay! Hey, does anybody know where I can get some cat handcuffs? I've gotta get a pair of cat handcuffs and I gotta get them now. Either two little ones like this, to go around the little paws. Or a big one that hooks onto my arm and then hooks onto the cat.

I found out my cat was embezzling from me. So I've gotta get a little pair of cat handcuffs. I found out that when I'm away, he goes to the mailbox, picks up the checks, take them down to the bank and cashes them. The way I caught him, I went out to his little house, where he sleeps at night, and there was like $3,000 worth of cat toys out there. And you can't return them, because they have spit all over them."

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Stealing pairs is what amazes me. That takes tenacity and a long attention span. Go, kitty! The suggestion in the article about hanging them in the front yard with a sign is a good one.

[srl.livejournal.com]

I can see it now. A photo of the cat, with the gloves hanging on clothespins below. "Have you lost a glove? I bring gloves home all the time, but mom says I have to give them back."

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Hee hee!

In high school I had a cat with a stuffed animal fixation. In the evenings, if people were downstairs watching TV, she would carry stuffed animals down the stairs and put them at our feet and look very, very smug (she wouldn't let us pat her afterward and she'd lie down just out of reach, but showering her with praise was fine). I mean, several stuffed animals a night. Multiple trips. Once she brought down a teddy bear as big as she was, apparently by straddling it (I have no idea how she made it down the stairs). She had this peculiar yowl that meant she was carrying "food" for us. At night, she'd carry them all back upstairs.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome. Just hang the gloves by the fingers so they don't fill with water.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

That was merely amusing until the last sentence, when it became amazing. Cats tidying up after themselves?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

She was alarmingly maternal.

[jadelennox]

I think I love your cat.

You might stick a couple of posters on lampposts on your street that say "my cat Steals gardening gloves -- if you are missing a pair, please call". That is, if your landlord wouldn't approve of a clothesline on gardening gloves and a sign just hung on the front fence.

Copy Cat

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

Your cat must spend too much time reading news articles on the internet. Obviously he/she read about the New York cat and decided to become a Copy Cat Glove Thief. The cat would have scored more points if he/she had been more original and stolen something other than gardening gloves.

Possible remedy

[medyani.livejournal.com]

My cat also has a foot fetish. When he was a few months old he started attacking my shoes, pulling out insoles and laces, and also stealing socks and moving all and sundry all over the house. So one day I picked a pair of my socks that were unique looking -- my only wooly grey pair-- and gave them to him. It took a few days -- when he would take one of my other socks or try to tear apart my shoes I would offer him his socks. He figured out the grey socks were his surprisingly quickly, and voila! Now he fixates on these two, moving them about the house. So now my only issue is when new guests visit and see the ratty socks on the couch, I explain that they're not mine, they're his!

So perhaps give your cat his own pair of gloves . . . .

[dj-daeva.livejournal.com]

i *know* i love her cat!

my cat has figured out how to turn on my turntables...he loves to swat at the platten to try and stop it...it was actually really cute until he scratched one of my boyfriend's new records :)

who am i kidding? it's still really cute :)

<3

[ojouchan.livejournal.com]

... I think I may be in love with your cat. That is too ingenious. I had a cat that was obsessed with my mother's cigarettes, and kept stealing them. That is not nearly as amusing.

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. Too funny.

If this is the Jenny I know, then howdy!

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we know each other, and if you think I'm the Jenny who was a fellow-slayer with you, then yes, I'm the Jenny you're thinking of. Welcome to my f-list.

[simply-juniper.livejournal.com]

That is too cute! My cat does the same thing with socks.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

That is very, very adorable. Dose your cat give lessons on being cute?

[marylu.livejournal.com]

one time my cat pooped in the toilet!