A Greedy Russian Cat Spoiled $1,000 Worth of Fine Seafood

When passing through an airport, it's hard to resist the duty-free shop: so many oversize bottles of liquor! A plethora of sweets to bring home to family and friends! Airline travel, these days, is so miserable that it's always tempting to get a buzz on the ol' endorphins by raiding the duty-free for any and all treats that will extend the just-gone-on-vacation feel a little longer. And apparently, airport shopping—er, stealing—is just as appealing to some cats as it is to most humans.

Earlier this week, a stray Russian cat that was apparently inhabiting the airport in Vladivostock, in far eastern Russia, snuck into the airport's delicatessen and hit its fish counter hard, pouncing on chilled squid and tearing open packets of dried octopus. While the actual monetary value of the cat's nighttime nosh didn't amount to much, the store's owner, Irina Kuzmina, had to toss the entire display, tainted, as it was, by the snacker's eager paws. In all, over $1,000 dollars in high-quality seafood was pitched. But that waste doesn't seem to matter to the internet, a well-established community of cat lovers/obsessives. When an amateur video of the cat's antics made its way to YouTube yesterday, feline fans embraced the furry thief.

The video, which shows the ginger cat carefully poking around in a well-stocked fish display (to a soundtrack of the hushed, amused voices of the filmmaker and his friends), has been viewed over one million times. Cat lovers around the globe have been delighted by the stray.

"Must have been very Yummi !!!" YouTube user 456inthemix wrote in the video's comments section.

"wow, that must be a cats dream come true! :D" Joseph Gray added.

More locally, Russian fans of the cat, as well as domestic and international travelers, have been flocking to the airport delicatessen in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the stealthy caviar aficionado, who hasn't been spotted again since fleeing the scene of the crime.

"Our staff practically can't work because of the flow of fans," Kuzmina told PrimaMedia. "From the arrival hall, people come directly to us with questions about the cat. But they don't buy anything, they only ask questions."

And according to the BBC, a few animal lovers want to do more than just look at the cat—they want to adopt him. "The airport has received letters from dozens of concerned people offering the animal a home," the article says.

Let's just hope the cat's potential owners are prepared to shell out the big bucks for Fancy Feast, to cater to kitty's posh tastes.