Employees at the Friends for Life Animal Shelter in Houston, Texas have been encountering a unique problem for the past several months: the door to the shelter’s senior cat room kept mysteriously opening, allowing the cats inside to wander around the shelter. What was going on? Was it an inattentive worker, a ghost, or something else?
Turns out it was indeed something else, and that something else was a 6-year-old rescue cat named Quilty who began calling the shelter home several months ago.
Security footage revealed that Quilty, having watched humans open the door, mimicked the necessary movement by jumping up and pulling down on the door’s handle, opening it for all of his kitty friends inside.
Shelter employees knew Quilty was crafty. They were told that Quilty was quite capable of opening doors himself when he lived with his previous family.
Employees of the shelter have had to lock Quilty in “solitary confinement” overnight while they Quilty-proof the shelter. Friends For Life posted a photo of Quilty in solitary that has since gone viral [1].
Fortunately, after the post went viral, people jumped at the opportunity to adopt Quilty. Quilty is now on a trial adoption period with a potential cat parent and it’s going very well.
“He is doing really well. He hasn’t tried to hide at all and loves to be in the bed or on the couch snuggled up with one of us,” the potential adopter said. “He sleeps under my covers with me like a dog. He doesn’t really like the 2 dogs but they leave him alone so there aren’t any problems really, he just doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. I am hoping with a little time, he will get used to them. He hasn’t shown any slickness at all yet; he is the most loving and affectionate cat I have ever met!”
Sadly, Quilty’s experience isn’t shared by every feline companion who ends up in an animal shelter. Every year, 3.2 million cats enter animal shelters across the United States, almost 900,000 of which wind up being euthenized [2]. Fortunately, the decisions we humans make can reduce that number beginning right now.
If you’re considering adopting a cat, please visit a local animal shelter before buying from a breeder. At any given moment, there are thousands of cats around the country that need a home and may face deadly consequences if not adopted.
And while it can be a lot of fun to have a scrappy, fun new kitten in your home, kittens are considerably more likely to be adopted than an adult cat. Adopting an adult cat not only reduces the burden on your local animal shelter but undoubtedly saves that cat’s life.
Finally, if you decide to adopt a cat, please be sure to spay or neuter your new companion. This will reduce the number of unwanted cats being born.
If you’re in the Houston area and you’re ready for a new cat companion, Quilty’s friends are still awaiting adoption. You can learn more about them at Friends For Life’s website.