We’ve finally reached the point where our orange rescue cat Jack-Jack has clocked into life for a full year old under our roof.
I’m surprised that he’s taller than our other cats purely because his legs are longer.
Strangely enough, his body is still rather short and he’s barely keeping up with growing into a young adult cat with better proportions.
Outside of that, he’s still a bit of a menace on a day-to-day basis.
Jack-Jack has managed to refine his thieving skills to steal pens, paperclips, straw toppers, jewelry pieces, tweezers, screws and even nails.
He’s gone beyond stealing dish towels, washcloths, hand towels and body towels – no, Jack-Jack has changed his tactics altogether.
Given that this sort of behavior is a source of growing concern, we opted to fit him with a Velcro collar and larger than average bell to announce his location.
Unfortunately, he’s pretty much managed to cause minimal ringing volume when committing any of his kleptomaniac crimes.
Or, at least, if they happen overnight, I certainly can’t hear him getting up to mischief.
We’ve discussed swapping his inch-long bell out for something more aggressive – like a cowbell!
But, mom vetoed that idea and said it would be too cruel.
So, we’re working harder to keep those smaller trinkets and items out of his way and to keep him occupied with other cat-approved toys.
I have to confess that the most annoying item I’ve come across that he’s moved was my toothbrush.
Never in all of my years of owning cats have I ever had a feline friend take my toothbrush.
It’s not like he got very far with it – I found it in my bedroom a few scant feet from the door and was super confused.
A bit of Google searching and scrolling Reddit boards for others having similar experiences yielded the unfortunate results that sometimes cats steal items to encourage you to play with them or they want their scent on your items.
Needless to say, I don’t know which end of my toothbrush was in his mouth and wasn’t fancying picking carpet lint out of said bristles, so I bought a new toothbrush that gets hidden in the cabinet after each and every use.
Since that incident, Jack-Jack has been careful and chooses his thefts about as wisely as Danny Ocean – or at least he’s waiting to cause trouble until I’m asleep.
And, honestly, that’s perfectly fine for me!
As long as I can find whatever items he’s filched and to return them to their rightful places, I’m alright.
Last week, mom told me about how Jack-Jack stole her mesh bath pouf right in front of her eyes and ran off to play with it.
Having caught the feline in question red-handed and mid-theft myself, I can readily admit to there being roughly 1.5 seconds of time where he’s too adorable to yell at or attempt to curb his behavior.
Naturally, once that brief time period passes, then it’s a quick chase to retrieve whatever stolen goods he has before he tries to hide it somewhere until said items are possibly ruined.
Mom and I also discussed buying more cat-safe toys for him to chase around and turn out living room to an animal play pen.
She was adamant at first that the cat toys would be like their canine counterparts and therefore littered across the house in varying states of disarray or uselessness.
And, to be fair, she had a point!
