Amr Hassan’s The Sock Thief
My cat loves to sleep more than anything in the world! He sleeps on his back, spreading both arms and legs like a middle-aged man coming back exhausted from work! He doesn’t like to be bothered when he is asleep to the point that he refuses to wake up for food.
I worried about how much he slept and took him to the vet; it cost me an arm and a leg to figure out my lovely cat was just a lazy orange fluffball.
Or that’s what I thought!
It was all just a scheme to fool me. He sleeps all day but has a sinister nighttime routine of waking up after I sleep to steal some small items and hide them in his small lair!
Let me tell you the story of my little thief from the beginning!
One day while getting dressed to go hang out with some friends, I noticed that I had no matching socks, “it’s impossible; I just bought half a dozen,” I thought to myself; I shrugged it off, assuming that the monster that lives inside the washing machine ate a single sock of each pair!
On my way home, I bought another half a dozen to feed the washing machine monster a little more, which is what happened. A week later, I realized that a single sock of each pair had gone missing again!
I went to the laundry room where his litter box is and started a thorough investigation that led that the washing machine monster being innocent of such a heinous crime!
Later that day, I set a trap to see if my suspicion was in its place. I threw a random sock in front of the laundry room and waited. That was the time I caught him red-pawed!
He went to the sock, carefully looked both ways, took the sock in his mouth, and fled the crime scene. Doughnut-Ello has been stealing my socks all along!
I waited a few seconds and followed him back to his lair behind a couple of plant pots on my balcony. There I found him, like a dragon in his cave protecting his precious treasures and gold from the noisy knights, sitting on a well-hidden pile of socks and small random stuff he was!
Honestly, I wasn’t even mad. I was amazed by the whole situation that I started laughing; an extra cat treats you will get for making me laugh that hard, Ello!
Since Ello was born and even before he learned to use his cat litter, he had one arm different than the other, and he had a white one and an orange one!
I always thought he was wearing just one tiny white sock on his right arm. Maybe that’s why he is stealing a single sock each time!
I remember one time my previous Siamese cat Meezy shared her beautiful 17 years with me, stealing half a rotisserie chicken from the top of the kitchen counter and hiding for a whole day!
I mean that I get stealing food as she is just going with her hunting instinct, and chicken is a suitable prey with a purpose, but a cat stealing socks was new for me!
I had to research a little bit for a reason and found out that cats feel safe in the presence of their owner’s scent. Just like humans do with a little comfort blanket or a teddy bear! He does consider me family and feels safer on my little pile of socks!
Ello will be the reason I declare bankruptcy as I decided to reward him for just being adorable by getting him new cat toys and some tasty cans of wet cat food. He knows that as he always hops onto my work desk at home, he stares directly at me for a solid 3 minutes, making sure I am working hard to get him all his favorite dry food, and even gives me some support cuddles while at it!
Cats are beautiful creatures, and you will be the luckiest person on earth when you get adopted and loved by one of them. Dogs will love their good owner no matter what, but cats make you feel special daily!
That doesn’t mean I don’t miss my lovely Petro every day! A giant German Shepard with a heart bigger than him!
I still keep his dog collar and think he is now sharing a big feast with Meezy!
I ensured that Ello kept on his night rituals, and even I purposely plant stuff for him to steal! I hope he doesn’t notice that there are way more socks in our home now.
But hush don’t tell him, that will just be our little secret!
