Shelter animals are always looking to get out by finding a new home. But one clever cat wasn’t going to sit around waiting to get adopted.
He was going to break out.
The Friends for Life Animal Rescue in Houston, Texas takes care of many dogs and cats, and treats them all well… but that apparently didn’t stop one of their residents, a 6-year-old cat named Quilty, from inciting a little rebellion.
It all started a few months ago, when shelter workers noticed that the door of their cat integration room kept opening on its own.
“We would come in in the morning and have to collect all 15 of the cats who had had a blast during the night,” Jennifer Hopkins, the communications lead at Friends for Life, told CNN.
Was it an accident? Did someone accidentally leave the door open that night before heading out? Nope—it was a break-out, orchestrated by Quilty, who had learned to open doors on his own, freeing his fellow cats from their containment.
This was not a one-off thing. Quilty managed to open the door several times, and was proving to be a masterful escape artist, to the human’s chagrin.
“Quilty loves to let cats out of the senior room,” Friends for Life wrote on Facebook. “Repeatedly. Several times a day.”
Apparently, Quilty has known this skill since before he entered the shelter. Maybe it’s not about wanting to leave the shelter, as much as it’s the thrill of pulling off an escape.
“Quilty will not be contained,” they wrote. “And he has no shame.”
It was clear something had to be done. This cat could not be contained. “Quilty can be a little difficult,” Hopkins said.
So they took drastic steps: they “Quilty-proofed” the cat room, and in the meantime banished him to the “solitary confinement” of the lobby.
While his old tricks no longer worked, Quilty didn’t give up, trying to manipulate shelter workers into freeing him with his cuteness.
But at that point, they had seen it all and knew not to fall for it.
“His roommates missed him while he was banished to the lobby,” the shelter wrote. “They enjoyed their nighttime escapades around the shelter. The staff, however, did not miss the morning cat wrangling, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree there.”
The Facebook post about Quilty’s escape plots, along with photos of him stuck in “solitary,” went viral online with over 15,000 shares.
Quilty quickly built himself a big fanbase of people who were outrage that the cat was being repressed, and a movement began to #FreeQuilty.
The movement grew and spread. People started making memes about Quilty’s plight.
But Quilty’s viral fame could be the key to the ultimate escape act: finding a new forever home.
“If someone out there is looking for a clever cat that gets along with dogs but does not get along with closed doors, we have someone they really need to come and meet,” Friends for Life wrote.
“Please. Come meet him. And take him home. Please…”
According to CNN, Quilty had been adopted out of the shelter, but was returned a few months ago when his owner moved and couldn’t take the cat with him.
“We have a lifetime commitment for all of our animals to make sure they’re safe. We spend a lot of time and effort on them,” Hopkins said.”After all, we get the weird ones.”
While you wouldn’t think people would want such a mischievous cat, it turns out that everyone likes a bad boy… and the shelter has been hit with plenty of adoption requests.
“Anyone still hoping to adopt Quilty? (The answer is yes, because we’ve heard it from LITERALLY ALL OF YOU…)” the shelter wrote on Facebook.
Hopefully this rebel cat is on his way to new home soon… hopefully a very secure one!
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