Does Housewives Have a Cat Burglar on its Hands?

• Aug 5, 2008 02:08 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

A missing persons case is going to vex Wisteria Lane - except it involves not so much a human, but a pet.

Kathryn Joosten, aka Desperate Housewives' Karen McCluskey, tells TVGuide.com that Toby (the late Ida's cat) mysteriously goes missing this season. Have Andrew's sociopath tendencies returned? Did Orson mow down the tabby with his car? Or is one of Season 5's new characters - Gale Harold's Jackson or Neal McDonough's Dave - responsible for the cat-astrophe? "This season's going to have a lot of mysteries and subplots," says Joosten, noting that Mrs. McCluskey has a knack for sniffing out the rat among the new arrivals. "Karen is the only one who can see [the real him]," says the Emmy winner and 2008 nominee.

We spoke to Joosten at the opening of Petco Place, a Hollywood shelter that gives homeless individuals a spot to house furry friends. "If I were on the street and was told, 'You can come to the shelter, but you can't bring Elliot [Joosten's 18-year-old cat],' I'd say, 'You're crazy!'"

Having a place to live won't be a problem for tornado survivor Karen when Housewives returns Sept. 28. When Joosten spied her "enormous" new Wisteria Lane digs, she asked exec producer Marc Cherry, "How the hell did I afford that?" His reply: "Insurance!" Michael Maloney

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