Pirate Kitty Kylo Charms His Neighborhood With Adorable Acts of Thievery

His purr comes out “arrrrrrrrrr.”
By Chad Taylor February 10, 2022 Advertisement Pin FB More Tweet Email Send Text Message Print
orange tabby cat sitting in front of window Credit: Yanine De Jonge / EyeEm / Getty

Pirates have long captivated the public's imagination. Sometimes it's for their storied exploits; sometimes it's for not doing anything. But the residents of one Australian neighborhood in Brisbane, Queensland, have a different kind of hero in their midst: Pirate Kitty.

The 3-year-old ginger cat named Kylo has been the talk of the town for a year now. It all began last March, when Kay McCall and her husband moved into a new house in Brisbane's Ferny Hills neighborhood and Kylo greeted them in their backyard, according to ABC Radio Brisbane. They gave the handsome fellow a rub under the chin and went on with their day, but Kylo took that show of affection as a sign and began presenting the McCalls with presents.

The family woke up one morning to find a couple small toys mysteriously in their backyard. Then one in their front yard. Then another. And another.

"Most days the presents kept coming, and some days there was just one, and some days there was quite a few, and some days there were none," McCall told ABC Radio Brisbane.

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The presents kept coming for months until the McCalls had collected a genuinely astounding number of stuffed animals, balls, socks, and toys. That September, McCall posted a photo of their kitty haul to a community Facebook group, and the post was swarmed with dozens of replies from people who were either familiar with the kitty's exploits or could identify one of his prizes.

"Everyone fell in love with him on the spot, and he sort of became … a community icon," McCall said.

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Eventually, McCall identified that Kylo did indeed have a family and a loving home. However, the family decided in December it wasn't able to safely keep track of him and asked McCall to help rehome him. That was when fellow resident Igrid Moyle stepped up and offered her home.

Moyle has experience as a pet foster mom and had adopted several animals before, and she was looking for a new kitty after a couple of her older pets died in the previous few months, ABC reports. And so, last December, Kylo moved into the Moyle home, where he currently resides as a full-time indoor kitty.

While one might think transitioning a freewheeling pirate kitty into a comfortable house cat might be difficult, Moyle has found it remarkably simple. She still gives him toys to retrieve.

"I have a very, very large box of toys of different sizes and shapes, so I just tip this toy box on the floor downstairs in the lounge room," Moyle told ABC. "Then we just leave it be … and during the night you hear 'clunk, clunk, clunk', going up the stairs. He'll come and just stand by your bed and go, 'Meow, look what I brought you', and then he just goes off and gets another one."

Now, Kylo continues to entertain his 2,300 fans on his own Pirate Kitty Kylo Instagram page, as well as a similarly named Facebook page. 

Of course, Kylo isn't really a pirate, though. Acts of piracy involve boats or ships, which makes Kylo more of a … cat burglar.