Sox with some of his prized treasures - stolen shoes. Photo / Supplied
Sox with some of his prized treasures - stolen shoes. Photo / Supplied
A mischievous kitty in Ohauiti called Sox has been causing confusion and amusement in his neighbourhood with his cat burglar antics.
The 12-year-old moggy has been sneaking items from neighbourhood homes since he was about 5 or 6 and he seems to have found his favourite treasure, now stealing almost exclusively pairs of shoes.
Owner Louise Saunders said when Sox first started taking things it was the neighbours' undergarments, which was super embarrassing.
When they lived in Parkvale he progressed to tea towels, then towels, then bath sheets, which he was managing to pull from the neighbours' place over a 2m wooden paling fence and through shrubs to their house.
The scariest thing Sox had brought home was a zombie doll which he left on the deck, and when Saunders opened the curtains in the morning she said she got a heck of a fright.
"Now it's almost exclusively pairs of shoes, and if he only has one he goes back the next day for the other shoe.
"We moved house a couple of times last year and within 48 hours he's scoped out the neighbourhood and found shoes."
Sox with some of his prized treasures - stolen shoes. Photo / Supplied
She said he would bring them through the cat door if they fit, and would call out to the family to let them all know he had found some treasures, which was normally in the middle of the night.
If he doesn't feel like going out to find shoes, he will resort to moving the ones in their own house around.
Saunders said if people left a door open and there were shoes inside the door, Sox was not shy to nip in and take them.
Once a neighbour had a 1930s-style laundry room and he would go in if the door was open and pull things off the clothes horse, she said.
"Most people think it's hilarious," Saunders said. "There's the odd person who's a bit grumpy. I think some people think we are pulling their leg, but most people think it's absolutely hilarious".
When they lived in Ōtūmoetai, they used to put a plastic container out the front so if people saw their shoes they could take them back, and Saunders remembered kindergarten children walking past each day and looking to see what the cat had taken this time.
There had been another klepto-cat in Otumoetai called Gary too, she said.
Apart from his shoe fetish antics, Sox is a normal cat who loves playing and fighting with his brother Zac, sleeping in the sun and being smoochy with his humans.
Saunders said Sox and Zac were very much loved in their house and they had gotten their two furry members of the family from the SPCA.
If anyone in the Ohauiti community finds they have some missing shoes, they can get in touch with the family through the Ohauiti Community Facebook page to see if Sox might be the culprit.
