The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cat who ‘will not be contained’ keeps trying to free shelter pals
Walls can’t hold Quilty, the rogue cat who will not behave.
The unruly feline has become famous in recent weeks for sowing chaos at the Houston animal shelter where he broke out of his confines several times a day, often setting his cat comrades free in the process. Somehow capable of opening heavy doors, he exasperated his handlers.
“Quilty will not be contained,” Friends for Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organization wrote on Facebook last month, posting photos of Quilty meowing guiltily from his cat jail. The shelter’s frequent updates about Quilty’s latest crimes have turned him into an Internet celebrity with nearly 30,000 Instagram followers.
Meanwhile, Quilty has found what the shelter hopes will be a permanent home.
Quilty was born at Friends for Life and adopted at a young age. But his owner moved away and wasn’t able to bring him along, the Houston Chronicle reported, so he ended up back in the shelter, where he soon started leading after-hours insurrections.
“We would come in the morning and have to collect all 15 of the cats who had had a blast during the night,” Jennifer Hopkins, the spokeswoman for Friends for Life, told CNN.
The shelter’s employees pored through surveillance tapes to find their culprit. The security footage pointed to one suspect: Quilty.
As Friends for Life explained on Facebook, the tabby had perfected his technique at his former owner’s home, where he opened the door for the family dog. At the shelter, he would get up on his hind legs and repeatedly fling himself into the air, grabbing the door handle with his paws and pulling it down, springing the door open.
Because Friends for Life uses a “free roam” model where cats share rooms, Quilty couldn’t free himself without also freeing the others. Tired of being greeted with feline anarchy first thing in the morning, staffers temporarily banished him to the lobby while they “Quiltyproofed” the room.
When he was put back into the senior room, Quilty had to first spend some time in an “integration kennel” to readjust to his surroundings.
Quilty found a way to bust out of that, too
The more crimes the bold cat committed, the more his fan base grew. Answering to popular demand, the shelter’s staffers slapped his face on shirts and stickers, and began selling black #FreeQuilty wristbands.
Also, people began clamoring to adopt Quilty. On Saturday, the shelter invited supporters to come in and wish him good luck as he went off for a one-week trial in his potential new home.