THE McELROY ZOO: Meet Anne, the cat who’d love to live in a shoe

Every animal I’ve ever been around has had some kind of personal quirk, but I’ve never seen one like Anne. She seems to want to spend her life inside of a stinky shoe.

You might remember a story from a few weeks ago about Molly, the homeless young cat who I placed into a home — only to have her returned to me by the new family, who deemed her unsuitable. She was also pregnant when she returned from that experience. Anne was one of the kittens born to Molly two years ago.

Molly had four kittens, but only three of them survived. Anne is solid black, and she’s the runt of the litter. She’s the smallest cat I’ve ever been around, weighing in at only 5 pounds.

Her biggest oddity is that she loves shoes. I’ve had cats who love specific types of shoes — such as leather for trying to scratch on — but I’ve never seen one who so consistently wants to crawl inside my shoes. Given the smell of the human foot, you understand why this seems an unfathomable mystery to me.

When she gets excited about shoes, she’s typically moving fast, darting in and out of them and rolling around on the shoes. Here’s a brief video I was able to capture of her doing a bit of her weirdness. The quality isn’t that great, but it’s enough to give you an idea of how deep she pushes herself into the stinky depths.

Anne is quite shy, in much the same way her semi-feral mother still is. Of the three kittens who survived, she grew up to be the most timid. She and her sisters were named for the writing Bronte sisters. Charlotte is the most dominant and confident. Emily is the beautiful, sweet middle child. Anne is the little rebel who’s off in her own world.

Molly and her sister, Bessie, had a rough start as homeless cats, but I’m pleased that I’ve been able to keep them together, along with the three now-adult kittens. They might be a little family with a lot of inborn fear, but they’re at least all together and feel comfortable and safe with one another. (The picture at the bottom is Anne as a kitten with her Aunt Bessie.)

I don’t guess there’s anything wrong with a young lady having a shoe obsession, but if she dies earlier than her sisters, I’m going to suspect it had something to do with the disgusting smells that come in foot odor.

Editor’s note: If you enjoyed meeting Anne, you might enjoy previous stories and pictures about Dagny,  Sonny,  Alex,  Bessie,  Molly,  Oliver,  Munchkin,  Sam,  Maggie,  Henry,  Lucy,  Amelia,  Charlotte  and  Emily.