Like so many cat people, I’ve dropped plenty of cash on cat toys over the years. I’ve bought Ghost Cat remote-controlled spinning feathers, several laser pointers, and lots and lots of dangly things on sticks. She would play with these things for a bit, but always went back to her very favorite toy — old pop bottle caps. Luckily for Ghosty, these are plentiful in our household, thanks to her dad’s Diet Pepsi addiction (and, luckily for me, they are cheap) but lately it seems like Ghosty is getting bored with her old favorites.
I’ve tried to pick her up some different options without busting my budget. I’ve brought home several different kinds of catnip-filled mice for her to chase around, but Ghost Cat is not pleased with these cost-effective playthings. No, she wants to play with my things — my expensive things.
The first thing she ever stole from me was a makeup sponge. If it was just a regular old bulk wedge of white latex sponge, I wouldn’t have minded too much — those things are like fifty cents each. Unfortunately for me, though, Ghosty shares my expensive taste in beauty tools, and she set her sights on my brand new Beauty Blender. If you’ve spent as much time perusing Sephora aisles as I have, you know that a Beauty Blender is no ordinary makeup applicator. This little pink tear drop-shaped sponge is the Cadillac of makeup sponges, and it’ll set you back about $26 — a lot more than a catnip mouse.
So imagine my surprise when I came home one day to find Ghosty rolling my (nearly) brand-new Beauty Blender under the couch, where it came into contact with every dust bunny and bit of miniscule nastiness I hadn’t quite gotten around to sweeping up yet. Now, I could have washed it, I suppose, but seeing as how I was battling some pretty brutal acne at the time, I decided not to risk applying any of the dust spores from under the couch to my already sensitive face. I gifted the gross Beauty Blender to Ghost Cat, until she lost it somewhere in the crevices of our old apartment.
These days, I know better than to splurge on my makeup applicators, so I pick up the $5 knockoffs instead of the official Beauty Blenders. This doesn’t stop Ghosty getting her paws into them from time to time, but at least it doesn’t cost me quite as much when she makes off with my sponges. That’s good — because now that she’s gotten used to dipping her paws into my makeup bag, she’s started to lift my other beauty necessities.
If you ever see me out and about wearing one earring and no lipstick, trust me, it’s Ghost Cat’s fault. Now that she’s realized how fun Mom’s toys are, nothing is stopping her from stealing my stuff. I have to be really careful about putting my cosmetics away and not leaving things out on the counter, because my fluffy little thief will grab them the moment my back is turned. I spent days looking for one of my favorite lipsticks only to find it hidden amongst a pile of Ghost Cat’s bottle caps — and the lipstick wasn’t the only thing she had in her little stash. An earring, one that I had been missing for weeks and assumed to be lost forever, was also found in that dusty little pile.
If cosmetics were all that Ghost Cat was after I would simply banish her from the bathroom, but I’m afraid that won’t stop her from stealing my stuff. Lately, she’s been super obsessed with my headphones — the nice, expensive earbud kind that came with my Samsung Note 4. She likes to pull them out of my purse when I’m not looking, or liberate them from my nightstand and take them to the couch where she can bat them around and possibly ruin them. Thankfully, her playful pawings have not wrecked them yet, and I am still able to listen to my podcasts, but really it is just a matter of time before she destroys these things (and I’m so tired of taking them away from her that I’m tempted to just let her).
Ghost Cat will steal from me literally from head to toe. In addition to all cosmetics, the earrings, and the headphones, she’s also developed an affinity for my shoes. Not all of my shoes, just a pair that I really like and that I wore on my wedding day. They’re nothing special, really, just a pair of pink and black flats I bought to change into when my fancy wedding heels gave me grief, but I have an emotional attachment to them and still love wearing them three years later. I don’t know why Ghosty likes them so much, but she has managed to get them out of the closet on a couple of occasions, and I’ve come home to find her hugging, scratching, and playing with them. I thought this was something only dogs did, but Ghost Cat is making shoe stealing a cat thing for sure.
I guess if I want Ghosty to leave my stuff alone, I need to start locking it up tighter. I’m also going to renew my search for cat toys that she’ll actually play with. Even if she never takes to kitty playthings and always prefers to steal my stuff, it’s really not that big a deal. Her happiness means more to me than all the wedding shoes and Beauty Blenders money could buy (although I do wish she would steal my cheap lipsticks instead of the expensive ones).
Does your cat steal from you? Tell us your stories in the comments!
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