A woman in Oregon, USA, has resorted to making a giant sign to warn her neighbours of her thieving little kitty cat, Esme.
Kate Felmet of Beaverton, Oregon, has created a social media storm after her giant anti-theft cat sign went viral recently.
It’s a hilarious attempt from Kate to help her mischievous feline return a plethora of stolen goods from the local community.
Before she made the sign, Kate would go door-to-door making “apology rounds” to her neighbours. Clearly, this kitten was causing a ruckus.
According to Kate, her little friend, better known as Esme, has been bringing her at least one item a day since she was first let out to play in the summer of 2019.
Ollie was an indoor cat. He brought us gifts from our basement: the lint brush from the dryer, rubber gloves, curls of wood if my husband had used the plane but not swept up, little containers of screws and nails.
— Suzanne Gerhold (@Suzanne47) June 10, 2021
At first, it was your typical feline offerings. You know, dead birds. But Kate’s morals unintentionally steered things awkwardly astray.
“My mum is an avid bird watcher and was quite distressed, so I began to praise Esme for anything she brought me that wasn’t a bird.”
“Each time she brings something, she comes to the back door and yowls in a distinctive and harsh way until I come to tell her she has done a good job.”
Clearly, however, this has somewhat backfired as Esme interpreted the training less so as “don’t kill birds” and more so “bring me lots of random stuff”.
My cat used to come home with the collars of other cats- I was convinced he was a cat serial killer and these were his trophies. I used to sleep with a knife under my pillow. pic.twitter.com/bY7Nl0aWrF
— spite is my motivation (@1EEX303) June 11, 2021
“Esme has brought home many weird things”, confirmed Kate. April, for example, seems to have been Esme’s garden glove phase.
It’s around about this time that Kate decided to make the sign.
A giant homemade sign reads “MY CAT IS A THIEF”, with a drawing of Esme with a glove in her mouth.
Next to it, a small clothesline with an array of gloves and a face mask acts like a market stall for her deprived neighbours, proving the sign to be a minor success.
We had a cat burglar who brought home (at various times) odd socks, mail, photographs, a T shirt and a bag of medium length cable ties. Regularly had to sneak around re-posting letters through neighbours’ doors.
— Annie calvey (@annie_calvey) June 10, 2021
“People come by and mostly take pictures, but we had the school bus drive by and take a few pairs of gloves.”
Okay, let’s be honest. There’s a good chance that bus driver is just as bad as Esme, if you know what we mean. But here’s hoping that things work out for the majority of good citizens of Beaverton!
Onya, Kate!
