About

Quilty the Cat is a male rescue cat housed at Houston's Friends For Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organization. The cat went viral in November 2019 after the organization posted that Quilty had to be separated from all the other cats for repeatedly letting cats out of their cages at night.

Origin

On October 29th, 2019, The Facebook^[1] account Friends For Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organization – Houston posted photos of Quilty the cat stuck by himself in a room and attached his adoption profile.^[2] The post gained over 21,000 reacts, 11,000 comments and 17,000 shares in 14 days and read:

Quilty will not be contained. And he has no shame.

Quilty loves to let cats out of the senior room.
Repeatedly.
Several times a day.

We have since Quilty-proofed the cat room, while he took a brief hiatus in the lobby. His roommates missed him while he was banished to the lobby. 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.

Apparently this is not a new skill he learned here at the shelter; he used to let his dog sibling in the house at his old 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.

Please. Come meet him. And take him home. Please…

Spread

On November 4th, the Free Quilty^[4] Instagram was created and gained over 33,600 followers in nine days. The next day, the account posted a variation of Woman Yelling at a Cat with Quilty and the rescue organization's logo. The image gained over 1,900 likes in eight days (shown below).

On November 6th, The Free Quilty Instagram account posted a video of the cat trying to escape (shown below). The post garnered over 2,700 likes in seven days.

On November 9th, Friends For Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organization – Houston hosted the event "Come Bid the Spicy A-Hole Good Luck"^[5] for Quilty's sleepover with a potential adopter. That day, Instagram account Free Quilty hosted a parody press conference for his release (shown below). The video accumulated over 2,500 likes in four days.

On November 12th, CNN^[3] tweeted, "Welcome to the resistance, Quilty.This wily 6-year-old rescue cat has become the newest darling of the internet thanks to his mutinous attempts to free himself and the rest of his cat brethren from the cushy confines of a shelter in Houston. A mutinous cat was put in 'solitary confinement' for freeing other cats from a shelter" (shown below). The tweet gained over 1,400 likes and 200 retweets in a day.

On November 12th, 2019, The Instagram Free Quilty posted a clip in which Quilty was featured on The Daily Show (shown below). The video garnered over 2,300 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References