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A Houston, Texas, animal shelter has a whiskered Houdini on their hands.

The Friends for Life Animal Rescue houses a certain cat, known as Quilty, who has taken to breaking its feline friends free from their room.

After figuring out the jailbreak artist’s tactics, workers at the rescue centre decided to put the cat in kitty solitary confinement.

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The rescue centre took to its official Facebook page late last month to share the story, along with photos of a not-so-happy Quilty staring out the lobby window.

“Quilty will not be contained. And he has no shame,” the post reads. “Quilty loves to let cats out of the senior room. Repeatedly. Several times a day.”

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“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,” the post continues. “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.”

According to the pet adoption agency, the six-year-old cat has had years to master this particular skill. Apparently, Quilty learned this in his old home, where he would let his dog sibling out of the house.

“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,” the rescue centre wrote.

Speaking to CNN, Jennifer Hopkins, communications lead for the organization, described Quilty as “a little difficult.”

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“We would come in in the morning and have to collect all 15 of the cats who had had a blast during the night,” she told CNN.

Quilty has since become an antidote for bad news on the internet: the centre’s Facebook post featuring the escape artist has garnered more than 20,000 likes, 11,000 comments and 17,000 shares.

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Friends for Life has made sure to routinely update Quilty’s fans, and the rescue centre is even selling merchandise in his honour to raise money.

“To re-acclimate to the room (and all his roommates), Quilty had to go into the integration kennel in the room (we do this with all the cats when they join the room),” the rescue centre wrote in a comment.

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“The displeasure! He is being a spicy a-hole now because he is, once again, contained.”

Quilty has become so popular, in fact, that someone even created an Instagram account dedicated to the feline called @free_quilty. The social media account already boasts more than 31,000 followers.

The account owner shared a video of Quilty’s technique. The footage shows the cat hopping into the air and pulling on the door handle.

“Never give up on your dreams. This is my technique,” the post, written in Quilty’s voice, reads. “I’m just waiting for them to forget to use this stupid lock thing…”

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As of yet, Quilty hasn’t found his “furrever” home, but Friends for Life continues to update his fans. When asked whether Quilty was still up for adoption, the rescue centre wrote in a comment: “He has a bunch of apps, and we might’ve found his potential forever home. But we have a ton of cats that can cause chaos, if that’s what you’re into.”

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meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca