SNEAKY CAT BRINGS MOM WEIRDEST GIFTS HE STOLE FROM THE NEIGHBOURS
Mónica Vicéns’ instantly fell in love the moment she met her cat China. When she was only a little kitten, he and her two siblings were abandoned, Vicéns couldn’t say no to fostering them.
China was the smallest one of the three kittens and now the little white and brown tabby is living out her days with her forever mom. “China was the only girl and the runt of the three. I already had a 4-month-old male kitten named Waffles from that same yard and had fallen in love with China, so I decided to keep her.”
After a few short months Vicéns and China moved to a home with a large backyard where the scrawny kitten soon transformed into a fierce huntress. “It got to the point that we had to keep all the doors and windows closed making sure she wasn't able to get out because she always snuck in with some live creature in her mouth.”
Vicéns added, “She would get up every morning as if it was her job to go out there and provide for the family.” After a while Vicéns didn’t really like all the dead bugs that China gifted her each day. And in order to try and respectfully explain to China to stop the gifts, Vicéns stopped her from going outside.
But that didn’t stop China. She really wanted to bring her mom something everyday, and not being able to go outside she turned her attention to inside the house to find items to gift her mom. China started leaving her mom a huge pile of Vicéns roomate’s socks, outside her bedroom door. At first Vicéns thought that her roomate’s dog was the culprit, but eventually they caught China in the act. “She was making some weird meows so we slowly peeked around the corner and saw her dropping the sock by my door. It was the funniest thing we had seen!”
After a while, China found her way outside again, and to her mom's relief, she started bring objects home again to gift to her mom instead of live or dead ones.
China managed to find her mom some cigarettes and matches and left them outside the front door. At first Vicéns wasn’t really sure where China found these items but assumed they were her roommate’s.“A few days later, more items started appearing and that's when I pieced it together. She had been burglarising my neighbour’s yard and wouldn't stop. I would put everything back in their yard as soon as she dropped it and she would bring them back immediately, like, ‘Hey! I thought I gave you this!’ So, I had to wait until the end of the day to return all the items.”
Vicéns managed to figure out that China has a certain routine she sticks to every times she left the house. “She'll quickly run to her favourite patch of dirt to roll around in it then she’s off to burglarise the streets,” Vicéns said. “She'll come back with something, drop it at my door, sit and yell for me.”
After no one believed Vicéns’s story about China’s cat burglaries, she decided to set up a camera outside the door to catch her in the act. She posted several videos of China’s daily routine on Instagram and TikTok. However, Vicéns was still afraid that her neighbours might be mad about China’s thieving, so she decided to come clean. “I couldn't keep covering for her so I came clean. I left the neighbours a bag with their items and a note explaining what was going on.”
Luckily for China and Vicéns, the neighbours didn’t mind at all. Out of kindness and respect, Vicéns had set up a "return box" on their property where the neighbours could find things that might have gone missing from their yard. Even though China can be a handful at times, Vicéns wouldn’t have it any other way. “She loves to roll around in dirt, hunt, steal, knock things off tables and annoy me as much as possible and I love her to death. She makes me laugh every day.”