Meet Sora, an orange tabby with a wardrobe as big as yours.
Unlike other cats content with the fur on their back, this dapper gentleman loves to wear clothes.
No, he REALLY loves clothes — so much that he refuses to take them off!
And one more collage…beginning to think I take too many pics of my cat! ? pic.twitter.com/E3sJ2SbyaT
— JenniMarie (@JenniMarie1971) February 25, 2018
Sora became internet famous when his owner, Jenni Comito of Iowa, shared the story of how he came into her family’s life on Twitter last week:
I didn’t have a cat either…until last winter when this little guy followed my dogs into the house and never left. ?❤? pic.twitter.com/oPGJaEGKfL
— JenniMarie (@JenniMarie1971) February 25, 2018
Which is a beautiful story all on its own — but then Comito shared how the cat had quickly developed a taste for the finer things in life.
Yes he is. When he first came in the house we couldn’t get him away from the heater vents so I bought him a shirt to help him stay warm. Ever since, he yowls if we take it off for more than a few minutes. He’s amassed quite the wardrobe in the last year! ?
— JenniMarie (@JenniMarie1971) February 25, 2018
This fashionable feline didn’t just make any entrance into the Comito family’s home, either. He waltzed in with an entourage — their two Shelties!
It was during a bitterly cold December in 2016 when her sons mentioned seeing a small orange cat near their house.
Because Comito’s husband and oldest son are allergic to cats, they’ve never had one. “But we couldn’t leave him outside in the cold because there was a snowstorm coming,” she says.
They tried coaxing him into their garage with food, but the skittish kitten wouldn’t come near them.
Then, on the day of the snowstorm, Comito went to let in her two Shelties after their evening walk “and Sora came prancing in behind them like he owned the place — and hasn’t left since!”
Sora and his canine sisters Kacy and Misty. This is from January of 2017, about a month after he decided to follow them into the house and become a part of our family. ?❤? pic.twitter.com/TdywgCaWK2
— Sora (@tshirtcat) February 26, 2018
The kitten — he was just three months old then — huddled up in front of the family’s heater. And then wouldn’t move.
“Knowing nothing about cats, I didn’t know if he was cold all the time,” says Comito. “We went to the store to get a litter box and what have you, and they had these little shirts — they were for dogs — for $1.
“After we put the shirt on him, he was fine!”
But she didn’t realize how much he loved wearing clothes until laundry day.
“I went to do a load of clothes, so I took it off of him to wash it, and he yowled and yowled for 10 minutes and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him!” she says. “My son said, ‘Maybe he wants his shirt back,’ and I put it back on him and he stopped.”
Even though her younger son had already named the cat Sora (a character in Disney’s Kingdom Hears game), the family wasn’t sure they could keep him.
But the stars continued to align in his favor.
First was the surprise that neither Comito’s husband nor son had any kind of allergic reaction to the kitten.
The family tried to find out if anyone had reported a missing cat, calling their police department, animal shelter and even the local veterinarian (there’s only one in their small town), but no one came forward.
By March, “We decided, yeah, he owns us.”
The sudden Internet fame has been “a little shocking,” says Comito, who had to learn how to use Instagram to create an account for Sora (@soracatfashionicon). Good thing she already has plenty of photos to share!
Since that cold December night, Sora has become quite the clotheshorse, amassing a wardrobe of 38 shirts, sweaters and even a tuxedo for Oscars night.
Only 30 minutes into the #Oscars and Sora is alseep! ❤
?❤? #catlife #oscarscat pic.twitter.com/M4IQzCJ6Bo— Sora (@tshirtcat) March 5, 2018
“We’d go to dollar stores and look for more shirts, for $1, no big deal,” says Comito. “Then it got to my son looking on Amazon and finding this Hawaiian shirt for him, and it’s turned into a fun thing for us to see what kinds of shirts we can find!”