Oliver, the orange cat from Nashville, Tennessee, earned the nickname “Container Cat” on TikTok for his unusual ritual of carrying around plastic containers of all kinds in his home. As one person put it, these seem to be “emotional support containers” for the cat.
After taking them to a comfortable spot, he sometimes lays down and cradles the container like a “magical, beautiful treasure.” For hours, Oliver will play with them. Meanwhile, his adopted sibling, the black cat Coco is uninterested in Oliver’s container fetish.
As you might have guessed, Oliver’s name takes inspiration from Oliver & Company, the animated film about a lost orange kitten.
Images and TikToks/robinapril22
Oliver as a ‘Cold and Crusty’ Kitten
Although the TikTok music by Taylor Swift suggests Container Cat has “nothing in my brain,” his human Robin April adores the cat and his zany antics. When Oliver was a tiny kitten, the musician (This girl can sing!) found him in a bush, “cold and crusty,” in November 2020.
At the time, she mused that Oliver “lowkey looked like Steve Buscemi” and was very skinny and covered in fleas. After a veterinarian visit, the prognosis for the kitten wasn’t good. Around Christmas, April says Oliver almost died, but she refused to give up, cradling him against her skin to give him warmth and to feel her heartbeat.
“I simply refused to let that happen,” she said when she thought Oliver would pass away.
Oliver the Container Cat and His Other Habits
With April’s care, the kitten bounced back and grew into the Container Cat we see today, but he has other habits too:
- #1 – Containers, Tupperware
- Hanging out in a large container (the bathtub, sometimes with a potato)
- Getting in a big cold container (refrigerator)
- Knocking objects off the counter
- Sitting in grocery bags
- Screaming at his siblings and April
- Flinging himself from the couch
- Sitting on the heat vent under the couch
- Playing with Sirius and Apollo the dogs
Of all his habits, collecting containers made Oliver famous on TikTok. Then, The Dodo featured “Container Cat” in their own TikTok, which tells more of Container Cat’s backstory.
“Oliver became Container Cat this one evening,” April explains. “I looked down, and he was walking across the house with the container in his mouth, and now he does it all the time.”
Oliver with containers sent by The Dodo
As April explains, although Oliver loved playing with April’s dogs Sirius and Apollo, it was when he found the container that he found his true soulmate.
“He really gets along with the dogs. He never quite found one buddy or best friend. When he found the Tupperware, it was as if he finally found his companion.”
Possibly, Oliver associated the containers with being well-taken care of, April suggested. If you think about it, it makes sense. Considering his beginning as a lost kitten, he’s happy to remind himself that will never go without what he needs again. Thanks to Robin April, he’ll have more than enough of everything and a big empty container to put it all in if he wants?
