Special measures taken to keep Houdini shelter cat in his room

Quilty is a tabby-and-white rescue cat currently residing at the Friends For Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organisation’s facility at Houston.

I think he is one of those cats who (1) hates to be confined and (2) is smart enough to figure out how to get through doors by jumping up and pulling down lever door handles. Some cat owners change the lever type to round ones.

In this case, as you can see from the photograph above, the shelter staff have rigged up a temporary Heath Robinson device to keep him confined. You can see the broom attached to a string and the string is attached to the door handle. If Quilty jumps up and opens the door with the handle the door won’t open because the broom handle stops it. It looks pretty effective.

Quilty is clearly very upset by the device but the expression on his face betrays deep thought on how to escape . I really hope that he gets adopted very soon because he creates extra work for the staff and he can’t like being confined.

Apparently he lets other cats escape the room as well. In the video below on Instagram you can see staff bringing him back to the room after he escaped.

“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.” – Friends For Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organization – Houston.

I think he has also escaped by slipping out when an employee leaves the room. Cats can do this almost invisibly. He’s become an unlikely cat celebrity. May be find a great home and may the homeowner change all the door handles to round ones.