Posted on 07/21/2006 7:11:34 AM PDT by NautiNurse
Pile of Evidence Points to Willy the Cat As Gardening-Glove Thief in New York Suburb
PELHAM, N.Y. Jul 20, 2006 (AP)— A pink-and-white gardening glove was missing Thursday morning from Jeannine Goche's front porch. But there was absolutely no mystery about who had taken it. Willy, the cat who loves gloves, had struck again.
"It has to be him," said Goche, an attorney. "I've heard about him."
As if the gardeners of Pelham don't have enough to worry about, with the rocky soil and the slugs and the big trees casting too much shade, a feline felon has been sneaking into their back yards and carrying off gardening gloves.
Goche's flower-patterned number may soon take its place on the clothesline that's strung across the front fence at Willy's home, which he shares with Jennifer and Dan Pifer, their 19-month-old son Hudson and a mutt named Peanut Chew.
Above the line is a sign that says, in words and pictures, "Our cat is a glove snatcher. Please take these if yours."
On Thursday morning, nine pairs of gardening gloves and five singles were strung up, nicely framed by the Pifers' flourishing tomato and basil plants. Willy, looking innocent, was playing with a beetle under the Subaru in the driveway and occasionally dashing after Hudson.
"This all started about the time people began working in their gardens, I guess March or April," Jennifer Pifer said. "Willy would just show up with a glove, or we'd see them on the front steps. I guess it's better than if he was bringing home dead birds."
A friend, Claudia Bonci, said she was in the Pifers' kitchen recently and had noticed a single gardening glove on the sidewalk.
"Jennifer was telling me all about how Willy was bringing home all these gloves, and there was a small pile of them outside the door, and then here comes the cat with a glove in its mouth, proud as could be, like he was giving me a gift."
Some of the gloves really are gift-worthy.
"A lot of these looked brand new," said Pifer. "Some of them are really nice."
She doesn't know how far afield Willy goes to find a glove, but she has learned it takes him two trips to bring home a matched pair.
Willy, born to a stray last spring and taken in by the Pifers as a newborn, stays out some nights but seems to assemble his collection in daytime raids.
"Mostly it happens on weekends, I guess when people are out gardening," Pifer said. "Can't you just imagine people saying, `The gloves were right here, where'd they go?'"
John Cassone, who lives and gardens across the street, said he isn't missing any gloves. He uses "the big, heavy leather kind" and figures Willy, a wiry type, isn't strong enough to drag them away.
Guess again: There's a pair of the big, heavy leather kind among Willy's trophies.
Willy couldn't care less about the gloves after they're captured. On Thursday he could not be enticed into a grab-the-glove game.
In winter, when gardening gloves are hard to find, Willy switches to his offseason prey, dirty socks, which he brings from the laundry room.
"We find them in the hallway, on the stairs," she said. "I used to think, `Oh, I must have dropped it on the way down.' But now I know better."
Despite his criminal nature, neighbors get a kick out of Willy. Cassone said the cat likes to accompany the mailman up and down the block, all the way to each front door. Willy also likes to climb trees and bat at the heads of people below.
Since Pifer grows flowers and vegetables and herbs herself, isn't she tempted to make use of the endless supply of garden gloves that arrive at her doorstep free, shipping included?
"No," she said, a bit sadly. "I do a lot of gardening but I don't use gloves."
One of my cats loves gloves. I keep an old pair of mom's gardening gloves hidden around the house. He finds them and carries them to the middle of the living room floor. It's like a game for us.
L O L
Cats are masters at breaking and entering....
;)
How charming, they've got a kleptomaniac cat with a glove fetish. It's not exactly the kind of thing you'd think she'd want to advertise, but she did.
Willy also likes to climb trees and bat at the heads of people below.
Good, dear little Willy may solve his own delinquency problem. It's certainly reasonable to hope that one of those people will eventually take a bat to Willy's head.
the cat in the biscuit pan had a pen fetish too. she was bad about walking off with pens, playing them. she has been dead for a year and i still find pens hidden in the house.
Take a bat to his head? Aren't you a joy in a neighbhorhood. < /s >
I think it's rather funny.
awwww.. that one reminds me of my first cat.. mestophelees, he looked just like that but also had a black patch that looked like a bowtie on his chest.
he was a great hunter, caught bats out of mid-air, then let them go, just so he could catch them again.
My chocolate lab would let himself out of the backyard and go on pilfering sprees. He'd bring me several newspapers and various items from people's houses. One morning he brought me a pair of men's Hanes briefs. My mother told me he was trying to give me the hint that I needed to find a husband.
This is all George Bush's fault.
I really needed this, thank you! I just found out my kitty that's been with me for 14 years has an inoperable tumor and the vet doesn't give him very long. He likes to steal the straws out of people's drinks. Thanks for the laugh and making me think of a happy thought about my kitty!
Usually in pairs, but sometimes in odd lots. Odd lots were more often than not accompanied by one or more tails. Two or more tails usually meant that a mouse carcass could be found within eye-shot of the front porch without much difficulty (in that the camouflage attempt was feeble at best, or human-perspective dependent). That perspective based camouflage was truly astonishing in that from the front door the mouse carcass would be totally invisable until one shifted their vantage point a couple feet. Sometimes mouse carcasses would be found hidden in plain sight in an area Mom had been gardening, the carcass unseen (despite thorough examination of the area) but discovered just plain lying there when one got down to do some gardening at that spot.
Er, has your family ever considered the radical measure of keeping your clean socks in closed drawers and your dirty socks in closed laundry hampers?
I think you guys actually LIKE "Sock Patrol". And I think your cat knows you like it too :-) Good kitty!
Somewhere a woman was cursing every time she looked down and the feather duster was gone!! ;)
A funny story, I've laughed more at this post than I have all day. (Or week)
My Blueberry is a natural-born hunter who's stuck with being a house cat. She satisfies her hunter instinct by "capturing" wash cloths, small towels, and pot holders. My son had ten years of cancer treatments and she took care of him by presenting him with her gifts of love. Many times I've looked in on him and found him sound asleep with a pot holder on his chest.
(He's a survivor, by the way, but he swears Blueberry nursed him through all those treatments.)
When my little dog was a puppy, she was a total thief. Once she stole a scrunchie off a little girl's head, and did it neatly that no realized she had it until we saw that her mouth was just slightly open. (The dog's mouth, not the little girl's.)
G-d bless all furbabies.
My kittens have a fettish for my nylons. They take them out of the laundry hamper and leave them lying about.
Chloe also has a thing for chewing paper. No magazine is safe from her methodical shredding!
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