Jean Week’s cat has got a Houston neighborhood talking after the black feline has made it a habit to steal their belongings. The mischievous cat named Cleo regularly scouts the neighborhood and brings back lots of stuff. Clean folded laundry, a bikini, even a mouse – a computer mouse that is.
Jean said it all began when they were travelling over the summer and Cleo began to visit the neighbors and breaking and entering. He’s even gone into open car windows. The cat burglar has been caught repeatedly on security cameras and has become so famous for his thefts that he’s got his own tshirt (proceeds go to the local animal shelter).
But Jean said her cat has no remorse and doesn’t seem interested in changing his ways. But she’s trying to make it up to her neighbors by cleaning their stuff and putting it in a box with the label “Please look through his loot and recover your stuff.”
One viewer of Cleo’s story commented on the other note on Cleo’s box of loot, “‘He has no remorse, but I apologize on his behalf’. Every cat owner ever, actually.”
A Houston SPCA vet said that Cleo’s klepto kitty behavior isn’t a “one-off” as she’s seen it in cats before. She says it’s called a “substrate affinity,” which is when a feline develops an affinity for certain types of material.
Jax is another kepto kitty that regularly steals his neighbors’ things.
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