Meet Juno
Meet Juno “the Klepto Kat,” a domestic short hair, black and white tuxedo girl. Discovered and fostered in West Los Angeles, CA, from a feral litter of four. She found her fur-ever home in 2015 at the Geston’s residence in Carpinteria, CA. Born in early May, Cinco De Mayo, 5/5/15 was chosen as her birthday. First named Indiana (Jones) by her foster parents for her adventurous ways and curiosity, and renamed to Juno because they got her in June, she was small and feisty. But her adventurous ways didn’t just disappear simply because of a name change. She went from Juno, “the Small Cat” to Juno, The Klepto Kat.
When the pandemic hit, she began bringing home used plastic gloves, face masks, sani-wipes along with her other findings gaining community admiration and respect for “cleaning up the hood”, it seemed to bring a smile to everyone during the ‘Stay Safe, Stay Home” times. Friends and neighbors would joke about how she kept cleaning up the hood and saying things like, ”we could use someone like this in politics.” Late summer 2020, they decided to support Juno in a run in Paw-li-tics as honorary mayor and a “smile campaign” in their coastal town. With all the stuff that’s been going on in the community and having to stay in, they thought it would be fun to throw her paws in the paw-li-tical ring. Although there were some obstacles in her way: she couldn’t legally run because she’s not 18 (36 in human years), she’s not a registered voter, and she’s a cat!
Juno was not your typical sweet, loving kitty. Taken early from her orphaned litter mates, at about 5-weeks, she had to learn new social skills and adjust to humans. Keeping her as an inside pet was quite challenging, she attacked, scratched & would bite anything that was within her site. Eventually, she was allowed to go out on small outdoor adventures, supervised by family. They noticed that her kitty attacks began to decrease and she became more calm. Her time outside increased and by 6 months she had transformed into a more loving, less feral sweet kitty, Over the years, as she became more independent and she learned that the outside world was hers for the taking. She set her own schedule, going out early mornings, cruising the neighborhood. Like clockwork she comes home at breakfast & dinner time. She sleeps during the day, is usually home by dark, and grabs a bedtime snack before settling in for the night.
Over a few years, the family noticed various items such as rubber gloves, rags, toys, and balls appearing in their backyard. They assumed that the neighbors' kids may have thrown these things over. In June 2019, approximately four years after the family adopted their pet, they shared their first social media post about her collecting habits. However, they did not know this was just the beginning of her kleptomania adventures. At that time, they had only noticed a few things, but by October, the number had risen to 60; by the end of 2019, she had collected over 132 items. She enjoys cruising around the neighborhood early in the morning, especially on Thursdays, which is trash day, scouting for loose trash and treasures to bring home and add to her collection. Her most productive months are from spring through early fall, and her owner has declared spring as her "Official Klepto Season." Juno has gathered many items, ranging from gloves and rags to random finds, such as a leather knife holder, astroturf, safety vest, combs, stuffed toys, and clothing. Despite her adorable appearance, Juno is a cunning thief who has stolen over a thousand items from her unsuspecting neighbors in the last four and a half years. From June 2019 to December 2023, her collection has grown to over 1.7K treasures, which Geston has cataloged on spreadsheets. Moreover, she has also caught over a hundred videos of Juno's thieving acts.
Juno, dubbed "the cat-nip of media," has been featured in various publications and news outlets. Some of her notable appearances include a radio interview on KCLU/NPR, coverage on NoozHawk and Carpinteria Magazine's Summer Edition, a front-page story on Santa Barbara News-Press, and multiple features on local TV news channel KEYT and Animal Zone TV (Season 4 Seg 11). She has also been featured in numerous blogs, reaching countries like the UK, Europe, France, Germany, Japan, and more.
This didn’t stop the determined klepto-cat from doing her civic duty as a Carpinteria resident. Juno got a red “catpaign” stroller and would hit the streets giving out Vote Fur Her - The Purrfect Choice buttons, window posters and yard signs. Juno ran to clean up the community using sanitation, recycling & litter (no pun intended) control as her cat-paign cat-form especially with all the gloves, masks and disinfectant wipes being left all over the city. She had proposed that once things get back to normal she would like to work towards organizing and leading Klepto Klean - Up Krew in her community. While her name didn’t make it onto the ballot on Election Day, Juno the Klepto Kat hopes to continue to raise awareness for cleaning up Carpinteria and the environment as a whole and is still hopeful that one day she will hold an honorary office in our local community. She is pictured below at a candidate meet and greet, with Juno showing support and endorsing the incumbent, Mayor Wade Nomura of Carpinteria, CA.
Juno also gives back! She has been an inspiration with fundraising efforts for local animal shelters donating $1 dollar per rag (225) by Giving Tuesday November 30, 2021, and getting matched by a Facebook campaign. Donations in her name have been made to many other animal rescues organizations including supporting animal shelters & welfare in the Ukraine during the war. She has helped to host a community art project winning ‘People's Choice’ with hopes to donate funds to an animal organization if the piece was sold, it didn’t, but is optimistic that it will bring some value to a lucky organization and a donation can be made in her name.
