A shelter cat freed his feline friends. So he got put in 'solitary' and won't stop busting out

Ryan W. Miller | USA TODAY

Quilty just wants cat freedom. For himself, and for his cat friends.

A mischievous and clever feline living in a Houston animal shelter has garnered viral attention in recent weeks for his crafty escapes and cunning jailbreaks of other cats in the shelter, staff says.

It started in October, when the Friends For Life Animal Shelter posted photos of Quilty on Facebook.

"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," the shelter wrote.

The pictures showed the cat staring longingly behind a glass door. The new "Quilty-proofed" room was equipped with a broom near the threshold tied with string to the door handle to prevent it from opening all the way.

Jennifer Hopkins, communications lead for the shelter, told USA TODAY that the problems began when, one morning, shelter staff came in to find all the cats from the "senior room" out of their home. Then it happened the next day. And again, a third time.

Staff knew the cats' escape couldn't be blamed only on a door accidentally left ajar, so they looked at footage from a webcam in the room to crack the case. That's when they spotted the mischievous culprit.

"Quilty was jumping up and using his chunky body weight to pull down the lever," Hopkins said. Quilty had learned how to work a door.

The "senior room" Quilty was in is meant for older and "chill" cats that aren't too energetic, Hopkins said.

Quilty, however, "did not have any chill, we found out," she added.

Staff tried the broom and string method in the Facebook photos to put an end to the escapes, but Hopkins said the shelter is open and that approach proved not the best for the many people coming and going from the room.

So Quilty was taken to "solitary" for a few days – a spacious kennel in the lobby – while child locks were installed.

"He was very displeased," Hopkins said of Quilty's time in the kennel.

After a few days, Quilty returned to the "senior room," but needed time in an integration kennel to reacquaint himself with the other cats.

Not surprisingly, Quilty broke out again.

He took note of how the latch worked on the tower kennel structure and busted himself out.

Once he was fully integrated back into the room, now equipped with a child lock, Quilty continued to act up. He would "barricade" himself by the door and paw at it, Hopkins said.

The cat also managed to escape about five times a day, following people out as the door closed, and forcing shelter staff to "perp walk" him back.

Throughout the entire process, Friends For Life detailed Quilty's shenanigans. Videos showed him pawing at doors, flopping out on the ground and peering through the glass of his confines.

Quilty has a history of escaping, Hopkins said. He first came to the shelter as a kitten in 2012 when his first owner couldn't care for the litter. Quilty was in a closet along with his siblings, and he did manage to break free as just a days-old kitten, Hopkins said.

The domestic shorthair, named after a character in Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," found a home quickly back then. But a few months ago, his owner was moving and couldn't bring him along, a heartbreaking separation, Hopkins said.

Friends For Life is a no-kill shelter, and so they get a wide range of personalities: "We get the weirdos," Hopkins put it. While they've had had cranky, escape-inclined cats before, none of them drew as much online love as Quilty.

The original Facebook post featuring Quilty has been shared thousands of times, and the shelter began selling #FreeQuilty merchandise to fundraise.

National media outlets have also since covered Quilty's escapades, and he was featured on "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central.

"You've got a rescue cat that's rescuing other cats," comedian Roy Wood Jr. joked on the show, suggesting a movie featuring Quilty called "The Pawshank Redemption."

"Good luck to any family that adopts Quilty," he added.

Luckily for Quilty, that adoption might come in the not-so-distant future. Hopkins said since last Saturday, Quilty has been on a "sleepover" – a trial period for potential adopters to take an animal in for about a week to see how they get along and adapt to the new environment.

Quilty has been doing great, Hopkins said, and Friends For Life shared a message they received from the cat's potential adopter, too:

"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 post reads. "He hasn’t shown any slickness at all yet; he is the most loving and affectionate cat I have ever met!"

Quilty has also taken to belly rubs, a show of affection he hated while at Friends For Life, Hopkins said.

The shelter has also seen an outpouring of support and donations since Quilty's antics started going viral. People have been sharing positive messages and thanking Friends For Life for sharing the cat's story, Hopkins said.

And while Quilty has been an entertaining resident for a few months, Hopkins says the shelter is ready for him to find a forever home.

"We're going to be super pleased that we're not going to have to cat wrangle in the morning," she joked.

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller