--- title: Quilty Shelter Cat Keeps Freeing His Comrades From Cages description: Quilty the shelter cat will not be contained—and neither will his friends, if he has anything to say about it. canonical: https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-06T17:49:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:02.755Z og:title: Sly Shelter Cat 'Quilty' Keeps Freeing His Comrades and Will Not Be Contained og:description: Quilty the cat will not be contained—and neither will his friends. og:url: https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sly Shelter Cat 'Quilty' Keeps Freeing His Comrades and Will Not Be Contained twitter:description: Quilty the cat will not be contained—and neither will his friends. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Sly Escape Artist Shelter Cat 'Quilty' Who Will Not Be Contained Keeps Freeing His Cat Comrades > Sponsored content. 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Cats may have a reputation of being standoffish creatures who show their owners affection merely to fill their tummies_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 6, 2019 5:49 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 6, 2019 5:49 PM UTC At his heart, Quilty the cat just wants to be free. He will not be contained and neither will any of his fellow felines, if he has anything to do about it. The cat, currently a resident of the [Friends for Life Shelter](https://friends4life.org/) in Houston, has been gleefully opening doors and freeing his friends and the [shelter](https://time.com/4403865/pokemon-go-muncie-animal-shelter-dog-walk/) workers can’t help but laugh at his determined antics. “Quilty loves to let cats out of the senior room. Repeatedly. Several times a day,“ a [shelter](https://time.com/5461490/rescued-animals-camp-fire-california/) worker wrote while sharing Quilty’s saga on the group’s [Facebook page.](https://www.facebook.com/FriendsForLifeHouston/posts/10157943193687112?%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=-R) The wily cat reportedly freed his fellow cats for some “nighttime escapades around the shelter”, which resulted in a busy morning of ”cat wrangling” for the staff. The staff tried to “Quilty proof” the cat room, but he escaped that as well. “Quilty’s review with the parole board was denied, so he released himself of his own recognizance today. He felt that confinement had nothing more to offer him,” the shelter [wrote](https://www.facebook.com/FriendsForLifeHouston/posts/10157943193687112?comment%5Fid=10157952067927112) in an update. Adding in shock at the cat’s Houdini vibes, “This cat released himself FROM THE INTEGRATION KENNEL IN THE ROOM…)”. At some point, the shelter updated their Facebook page image to include a photo of Quilty and the hashtag #FreeQuilty. Unsure how else to keep Quilty safe, the shelter locked him up in “solitary confinement”, much to his great displeasure. The shelter posted a video of the determined Quilty cat trying to paw his way out of his cell. While it’s unclear whether Quilty is a criminal mastermind or just a cat yearning to be free, what is clear is that he needs a home who won’t try to keep him contained. At the time of publication, the little escape artist was still up for adoption at the [shelter](https://time.com/4235658/kids-reading-to-shelter-dogs/), although hopefully he won’t be for long as the internet is already in love: > [](https://twitter.com/NHSCats/status/1191468138669494272) > [](https://twitter.com/RealSillyOwl/status/1191496273754501120) > [](https://twitter.com/NakagawaPhoenix/status/1191684066321453058) > [](https://twitter.com/ISaidItsALion/status/1191475135192023041) > [](https://twitter.com/TheDreamGhoul/status/1191463770192797696) > [](https://twitter.com/JustLetMe%5FSleep/status/1191564399628173313) > [](https://twitter.com/kathaub/status/1191492797473292288) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/"},"headline":"Sly Escape Artist Shelter Cat 'Quilty' Who Will Not Be Contained Keeps Freeing His Cat Comrades","datePublished":"2019-11-06T17:49:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:02.755Z","description":"Quilty the cat will not be contained—and neither will his friends, if he has anything to say about it.","url":"https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/","name":"Sly Escape Artist Shelter Cat 'Quilty' Who Will Not Be Contained Keeps Freeing His Cat Comrades"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Cats Care About People More Than Food, New Study Finds","description":"Cats may have a reputation of being standoffish creatures who show their owners affection merely to fill their tummies","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3tc6BEh1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-28T15:57:17.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3tc6BEh1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```