Cats are not only fond of mice or birds: some of them love to steal objects as if they were thieves. Underwear, gloves, mail, small objects: they like to steal, but it is very difficult to understand what motivates them. At least it’s safe, say the ethologists: their goal is not to give gifts – neither to the people they encounter, nor to other cats.
This year, a wave of clothing thefts committed in a Spanish town by two young cats and their mother has rekindled specialist interest in the subject. This is especially the case with Auke-Florian Hiemstra, who works as a biologist at a museum in Leiden in the Netherlands: “I want to know why they do this. Documenting cases like this can lead to further research in the future.”
The animal specialist then began collecting stories about kleptomaniac cats. In addition to the three Spanish cats capable of stealing more than 100 items a month (which include a teddy bear and baby shoes), he recorded, for example, all available information about Charlie, based in the English city of Bristol, who was baptized Britain’s most prolific burglar after bringing a big haul home to Alice Bigge, the woman he lives with.
Diplodocus and bathing suit
Plastic toys, clothespins, a rubber duck, glasses and cutlery: these are what we especially find in Charlie’s stash, the most beautiful piece of which is probably a plastic diplodocus placed on the pillow of his human pet while she slept. Very bothered by her cat’s theft and not knowing who to return the items to, Alice Bigge found a solution: she placed them on an outside wall of her house so that their owners could retrieve them.
There are several examples, such as California’s Dusty and its 600 recorded thefts, including 11 in a single night. Among his trophies are a pair of Crocs, a baseball cap and a bathing suit. The Guardian also reports the case of Cleo, a Texan cat who managed to steal a computer mouse. These stories are certainly amusing, but above all they give food for thought to Auke-Florian Hiemstra and his compatriot Claudia Vinke, a specialist in behavioral biology at Utrecht University.
Without claiming to have solved the mystery of what drives cats to fly, the duo has in any case spotted a certain number of commonalities between the profiles of these four-legged Arsène Lupins. This allowed him to identify several hypotheses, some quite expected and others less so. Not surprisingly, stealing could represent a way to get attention or show that they want to play. It could also be seen as a way to prolong their desire to hunt.
A more surprising idea has also been formulated: certain cats could be motivated by the desire to exfiltrate objects whose odors they do not like, whether it is a pair of dirty socks or a piece of fabric with the strong smell of detergent. In addition, they are known to be particularly attracted to certain materials such as wool and plastic, which contain lanolin, also called wool wax or wool grease. This component is particularly attractive to cats, which helps to explain, for example, why they like playing with balls so much.
