Cat Burglars Exposed

Reproduction of Slinky Malinki, by Lynley Dodd

Once upon a time, some summers ago, Sam, a handsome orange tabby from next door was roaming happily in our backyard. I knew he was out there. My indoor cats were very annoyed about his presence and started hissing and meowing loudly in the middle of the night. For me, he looked like a nice pet inviting himself to join us. But later I figured that he was just taking a break from his mischievous adventures. And probably, he was the one who brought the little feathery gift to my porch.

Recently some studies pointed out that cats might be contributing to the decrease of the bird population in the US. To find if this is really happening some cool guys decided to investigate this assumption and are together on the project Cat Tracker, lead by North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. The multidisciplinary program is empowering cats with tiny cameras, GPS harness to register their whereabouts and also working with info gathered by feces analysis, so to find out what they are really up to. So, why those and many other cats are stealing or hunting? Where do they go? What's their motivation? They have all technology to enable truthful answers and maybe you can even enroll your faraway cat to make part of program. Just check it here.

Also, it looks like cats are bringing all sorts of souvenirs from their neighbors. Ghostie, a little white cat who lives in Portsmouth (UK) was in local and national news last week. Like one of my favorites children's book, Slinky Malinki (Lynley Dodd. 1990) he steals clothes and brings them home, as a gift for his parents. Unlike Slinky Malinki, white Ghostie goes stealing anytime of the day. Why does he do that?

Maybe this little thief here, in a special Animal Planet feature, caught in action few years ago, might know why he chooses carefully clothes from his neighbors lines. Or maybe no explanation is needed. After all, we are talking about talented burglars... cats.