years ago I took a still alive bird from my cat as he dragged it into the house and down the stairs. At the time we were living in a European row house, it was summer so most of the doors to the second floor balconies on the back and the attic balconies in the front were open because of the heat. The next day the cat came in proudly dragging a leather mule style slipper with a rabbit fur ball on its' toe. I took that away from him and he went off in a huff. For the next couple of weeks, he would show up with random items, mostly soft and or furry. Socks, scarves, the slipper repeatedly, stuffed toys, balls of knitting yarn, soft towels etc. It got to the point wher I would collect everything into a basket and go from neighbor to neighbor, allowing them to reclaim their "borrowed" items. Several times it became apparent that he was going further afield than just our row of 6 houses because about half of the items were unclaimed!

Finally we got a cold spell and the balcony and attic doors were closed so his crime wave ended. Fortunately my neighbors were very understanding. The teenage daughter who owned the slippers even offered to buy him his own pair, but I managed to convince her that if she would just lock up her slippers that would help.

Several years later when we were getting ready to move, I found another whole pile of uncliamed stuff under a cupboard.

Several of my former neighbors continued to inquire after the"kleptomaniac" cat until he died.

marni