My Facebook feed is always full of posts about cats and dogs that are looking for their forever homes. The stories make me want to adopt every single one that I see, and the pictures are always adorable. A shelter in North Carolina has tried a different tactic to get a cat named Perdita adopted. They have dubbed her “World’s Worst Cat,” and are pulling no punches:
An animal rescue has created a hilariously honest adoption ad in hopes that someone would take the “world’s worst cat” off their hands.
The Mitchell County Animal Rescue in Spruce Pine, North Carolina captured pet lovers’ attention on Wednesday when they posted a cheeky adoption notice for Perdita, a domestic short hair mix that they say is “not for the faint of heart.”
“Perdita, we thought she was sick, turns out she’s just a jerk,” the organization captioned photos of the feline shared on Facebook.
In the posting, the rescue wrote that Perdita likes “staring into your soul until you feel as if you may never be cheerful again,” “lurking in dark corners” and “fooling shelter staff into thinking she’s sick.”
They also shared that Perdita does not like interacting with kittens, dogs and children and hates being hugged by humans.
“She’s single and ready to be socially awkward with a socially awkward human who understands personal space,” the shelter wrote in the post, adding that they’ve waived her adoption fee.
Aww. Poor Perdita. She’s at the shelter because her owner died, so I’d bet that has something to do with her personality at the moment. I have a very cranky cat, so I can relate to having a pet with a less-than-joyful attitude, though my cat does actually like me. (At the moment, he’s lying near my feet with his head on his front paws.) Perdita is cute and her pose in those photos makes me think that she likes to run things. I’m sure there has to be someone out there who doesn’t have other animals or children and who wouldn’t mind having a not-mushy cat. I hope that Perdita finds her forever home soon, and that, assuming she’s likely upset about her owner’s death, she’s able to feel safe and loved and perhaps relaxes a bit.
She’d hate my house, then. I have two kids and an overly curious Jack Russell who doesn’t seem to grasp the fact that he’s gonna get his a** kicked by any cat he chooses to mess with. I hope this sweet girl is able to find a good home where she can be socially awkward in peace.
Our cat was Perdita until our 7yr old neighbor cat whispered. The girl would play w her till our Perdita would scratch & run away. We’d watch out the window & say, “wait for it”…but now our P is turned around to the sweetest. She Persisted. Ha! That girl was even our cat for halloween she loved him past his Perdita-ness. True story.
I have a similar story with a Perdita human hating stray, who, after 2 months from adopting him, turned into the worst snug bug ever. We couldn’t escape from his hugs I swear . Kidding, we loved him unconditionally, and he was quite a mess when we adopted him.
Not a grumpy cat story, but, someone I know has two elderly cats and they recently got a puppy that’s VERY energetic and bouncy and just wants to play all the time. She’s calmed down since, but she was really scaring the pants out of those two old cats on a regular basis LOL. And she was getting really confused as to why they would run away because all she ever wanted to do was play with them.
Aww she sounds like she could be grieving for her previous owner or just grumpy.
I love animals with a bit of attitude.
Lol, I always seem to get the cats with the weird attitudes and I love it. One of them just looks like it hates life and tries to steal pizza from us, the other has figured out how to work drawers and cupboards. Both are chatty as hell and SASSY.
Long live cats with sass.
Haha me too. I like pets that make you work for it. I am clearly a masochist.
Right? Nothing like drawing out a shelter animal. Better than watching netflix all day- who knew??
Some cat breeds are so notoriously limited in their attachments. My friend’s got one that’s half-Persian, and that cat will not allow anyone BUT her to touch him or even interact. He has to be locked into their rooms when new guests because he gets anxious and will scratch.
I’m about to adopt a dog with an attitude. She’s a grumpy 15 year old Shih Tzu who I have dog sat for many times. Her owner is moving and can only take 2 of her 3 dogs. Sophie is the least cuddly dog I’ve ever met and she can be bossy/grumbly. She is not what I would have anticipated getting as my first dog in my adult life, but my husband and I want to make sure she can live out her best and most comfortable remaining life with people who know and love her, so she will be coming to stay permanently in a couple of weeks!
@IMUCU, it take a special person to adopt Senior dogs. Bless you for making her last few years happy, warm AND loved.
What a great thing to do!
She will probably become extremely loving- just wait it out.
I’m glad they chose to be honest. Amin also are like people – they are not always sweet and cuddly. Hopefully someone will recognize a kindred spirit and adopt her.
Oh God, she sounds like she’d be perfect for me. I hate people most of the time…too bad she’s not closer. We could just sit and read and judge people all day.
Lol! I wish you could adopt her, too.
Cats can be incredibly loyal and bonded to people, other cats and other animals. And they hate change.
Poor Perdita has probably reached the limit of what she can put up with. Going from a quiet home with one owner to the environment of a shelter is very stressful for any cat.
I hope she finds a good home.
Mellie, maybe they can arrange for transport, there are agencies that can do that. Or maybe meet you halfway. They may be accommodating in this situation to get her to her furever home. Then you two can sit at the window and judge passers by together!
Don’t you all just love her look? She just looks so pissed. It’s awesome.
Yah, my first thought is that there are scores of people who are perfect humans for this kitty. This ad is the perfect way to reach them, too.
Much love to shelter employees who work so hard to find homes for animals <3 <3
Oh Mellie, I would adopt you, too 😀
I hear you Mellie. I can’t help my resting bitch face so I go with it. I can’t even be bothered to judge people most of the time, because of the effort it takes. ;p It’s nice to be in the company of one not needing attention lol.
My cat is very cranky and I wouldn’t change her for anything in the world. She’s always around me even if she doesn’t like being pet for more than 1 minute and if I move to another room, there she goes after me. I hope Perdita finds a new home!
Same. We have three cats and one dog, they all have their own personalities. The cranky ones are kinda funny.
Out cat will hiss if you attempt to pick him up. He is fussy about when you can pat him, and just likes to lie on the bed or sofa with someone near. Perfect cat as far as I am concerned!
Exactly!
Aww, my cat is like this. He was returned to the humane society twice. He loves me, but he tends to bite others. She probably really misses her person.
Aw, Perdita. I get it. And I love the write up. She’s a lovely kitty, similar in looks to my own little cow cat. I hope someone who also gets it will adopt her.
My daughter worked at the local SPCA for awhile and they had a cat like that. They were going to put her down for being unadoptable. My daughter said, Oh no, and took her home. That was several years ago and Faith is the sweetest snuggle bug you could ever meet.
Yes! Cats are creatures of habit, so until you get them home from a shelter and settled in to a reliable life rhythm, you never actually know for sure what sort of personality they are going to reveal to you. I adopted a super skittish kitten once (alongside her bold sister) and thought she would spend her whole life skittering under couches. Turns out she is just easily startled, but aside from that, she’s this amazing solid teddy bear who, when she is sleeping in your arms, will periodically reach out and touch your face tenderly with her paw.
A lot of times, you really don’t know what cat you’re going to end up with unless it’s lived with you for 6mos- a year. My skittish little cat hid in corners for months and now he’s a lap cat that sleeps on me every night. The shy ones can take a while to come out of their shells.
Shelters are very stressful places for animals and it’s hard to judge a personality based on how they act there. When we got our dog, the shelter thought she was super skittish and shy. OMG, 24 hours in our home and she became a social butterfly, super curious, and not at all afraid.
Aw! I have a soft spot for kitty jerks. My kitty who lived to be 18 was a low level jerk—he had no time for contrived play or any type of cuddles and had a seemingly random hate for certain people while ignoring nearly anyone else. But I found him hilarious and agreed that lots of people are clearly terrible, so we got along great.
This is one of my favourite posts ever!
[*I had a low level jerk cat, too.*]
I love cats like that-I’d adopt her in a heartbeat. I possess both classic resting bitchface & a poker face that any serious card player would love to have…..we’d get along just fine.
Poor Perdita. Losing their human can really traumatise animals and then they’re thrown into an unfamiliar and always changing environment at the shelter which won’t bring out the best in them. I hope someone patient is ready to give her a forever home soon.
Aw, poor girl is grieving, I hope she finds a lovely new home. My previous cat had a similar attitude, wanted nothing to do with anyone but me, and was a jerk to everyone else.
Whenever an adoptable pet goes viral, they always get a ton of applications, and I always hope all the people who didn’t get the “famous” one adopt another. There are so many that need homes.
I think @Kaiser should adopt her,she loves cats,no?🙀
Those headstrong jerks can be the best cats in the world.
I just have our little guy on my lap. Emergency rescue with kidney failure, we got him 4 weeks ago after we had to put our 20 year old cat down due to kidney failure. We only wanted to donate the kidney friendly catfood and came back with the little guy. He had hissed and scratched everybody, underweight with kidney problems, and they told us, since he had maybe 2 weeks to live they would put him down.
4 weeks later he has put on weight, loves playing outdoors and cuddling.
He can still be an ashole, waking us up at night if he wants to go out (and peeing in the rug if we don’t let him out) but we live him an hope he has a few more month with us.
That is so sweet. Thank you for giving him love and a home, no matter how long he has with you.
He ist giving us so much love and happiness back. Like every rescue cat we had (all my cats in the last 10 years were old and/or ill rescues).
This is lovely. My geriatric cat had congestive heart failure for 5 years before she passed away, and there’s something about the constant awareness/attention to how they are feeling, and the nurturing, that just solidifies and deepens that bond in such a breathtaking way!
You’ve made his life so much better with your love and care. You’re amazing!
This is why I love cats, lol.
All of the love for jerk cats is making my heart swell! Some cats are jerks and some are love bugs but they ALL deserve a loving home.Hopefully poor little Perdita finds a home with no other pets or kids where she can chill out and be spoiled the rest of her days. Clever ad by this shelter too! I bet it does the trick!
Apparently, the shelter has tried this approach in the past and it has worked well. Poor Perdita is grieving. I hope someone gives her a wonderful new home soon that she can disdain with flair.
Kitty jerks are the best. I have one myself, she’ll bite you if you touch her anywhere but on her head and as a former feral she’s not really team human…but I still love her.
Yes!
The shelter posted this update yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/MitchellCountyAnimalRescue/videos/vb.168800522340/196237448181366/?type=2&theater
Over 50 applications! Here’s hoping Perdita finds her home soon!!
Yay!!
@ JAMIE-ohhhhh, I’m in looooooooove 🐾💕🐾
Thanks for posting 🤗
This describes my female calico pretty aptly. And I have 3 kids – she mostly avoids them like the plague unless they are around when she wants to be fed or let outside. My husband and I worship her and treat her like a god(*am queen. We are constantly talking to her, trying to reason with her, trying to entice her to hang out with us. 90% of the time she ignores us and it’s totally fine. My kids think we’re nuts.
I love pet posts!
I lost my cranky kitty a few years ago. She hated everyone but me. For a brief moment when I first met my now-husband, she thought he was alright – and then she realized he was staying. That pissed her off. They reached a point of tolerance but she was still prone to hissing at him when I wasn’t around. That was her thing – for a solid 12 years i never heard her hiss at anyone. She apparently turn on people seconds after I walked out of the room. She was a real piece of work and I miss her sassy attitude.
Jerk? I bet not! She’s a Tuxie & they are intelligent. I think it’s more she is misunderstood & needs a loving environment. I was told my Love Bug was a Demon cat & mean.. he has been no such thing he is nothing but love and shared his love with others. He now has a lil following on Instagram with all his cute & quirky lil zen ways. Just as people, animals can be misunderstood.
Yeah my cat hates me after I saved her ass from a fungus infection that was eating her away. I had to force feed the meds on her…that was tough. But she’s doing great, brings me dead birds and spiders almost every day and loves to remind me that the most expensive royal canin food is the one for her. Awwww such a sweet baby, I do love her 🙂
One of the biggest difficulties with cats in shelters is that we almost never get to see the cat’s true personality in that environment.
Perdita may actually be a chill, loving cat who would enjoy a human’s companionship, but you’ll never know that until she’s in a home environment.
That is why reliable foster carers are so important in any pet rescue. People who can love an animal and then let it go to another family…so important.
A family member just adopted a kitten that was fostered, and oh my goodness, he is the MOST affectionate little thing. They really showered their fosters with love, and it shows.
I feel so badly for the animals in shelters that people expect to be cheerful and affectionate, they’re likely scared and confused. There’s a couple of rescues here that will transfer in shelter animals to try to help them.
That is so true about the importance of fosters. This will be my 4th year that I’m fostering for our Animal Control and it makes a huge difference for kittens when they grow up in a home environment. Right now I have two 12week old siblings that are very scared of people. I slowly see improvement with them. They don’t hiss anymore or run scared in the playpen. Last year was a long year for me with fostering and I thought I have a 3 months break before the spring kitten wave starts, but I just couldn’t say no to socializing Brioche and Biscuit and preparing them for a new home.
Fosters have such huge hearts!! Thank you to all of them!
I switched my morning read from news (we are all doomed) to bios on pet adoption websites. Some of them are glorious. I fell hard for a shepherd mix the rescue described as “the sweetest dog on the planet but has the IQ of a root vegetable. He’s perfect for an owner who will enjoy his can-try attitude.” At least they were honest. Too many places make their animals out to be Lassie reincarnated.
Honestly, I really wish they wouldn’t title ads like that for adoption. Cats are already the butt of jokes, people have no qualms about saying how much they “hate” cats–where as say that about a dog and people are ready to put you on a firing squad, Hollywood is no better–cats are always a**holes, never portrayed as sweet. And yes, there are many cats who aren’t sweet, but there are so many that are–but they never get fair treatment in the media.
I just wish the ad could have been more sympathetic.
/end of soapboxing. . .
I hear ya. I have also noticed that cat merchandise seems to be aimed for crazy people. Dogs get bowls with the word woof on them cat bowls have princess crowns and a poem about crazy cat ladies. Like not just cats get slandered cat owners are apparently insane based on the pet store selections.
My cat is just like this, but she charms everyone she deigns to acknowledge.
Yes, yes, yes! Thank you! “Crazy Cat Lady”. Seriously. I’ve seen more Crazy Dog Ladies that dress their dogs up in outfits and take them everywhere–but hey that’s totally cool. But if you like cats — Watch out, Crazy person coming at you!
Why can’t we all just love animals equally? I am a cat person, but I love dogs, too. I don’t want one, but I think they are amazing, too, and completely understand why people love their doggies so, so much. Why is it that so many dog owners are loud and proud saying that they “hate cats” but loooooooooooove their dogs? I don’t get it. Animals are awesome, they make our lives so fun and interesting–why all the hate for cats?
I think it’s for peeps who know how cats can be perfectly imperfect, but still embrace the flaws. I’d take him if he crapped in the box. I love all aspects of personality- just hit the box at all times!
Aw. I sympathize with her attitude and it makes me think about having a pet to keep me company. However I am so allergic to… Well everything, I wouldn’t last a week. Maybe in a bigger house..
I have an almost two year old half Maine Coon/half Russian Blue boy and he is a total goofball. He’s either chatting up a storm with us, affectionate as hell, or he’s barging around the house knocking stuff over and getting into all kinds of sh*t. Clearly he inherited his juvenile delinquent/don’t wanna grow up persona from the Maine Coon side. Takes them a LONG time to mature, but he is hilarious and entertaining…except at 3:00 in the morning when he’s trying to take the bedroom blinds down.
Boy, that is some serious resting bitch face kitty has going on!
But seriously, I would love to adopt her. The fact she has gone into a real funk after her owner’s death tells me this is a cat with heart and sensitive feelings, capable of genuine loyalty. She must feel so lonely and displaced right now. I hope they screen potential homes very carefully. It sounds like kitty would do best in a single adult home, no kids or other pets, with a person who is content to give her plenty of time, space and peace, and just let kitty come to them when she is ready.
Good luck Perdita!
Yes! She is in my neck of the woods but I can’t adopt her. I already have 6 cats (one was born grumpy) and I also foster. She wouldn’t be happy in our house. Fingers crossed a kind soul finds it in their heart to adopt her and give her the live she needs. Cats are such unique characters and don’t always get enough credit for their individuality.
Aw, you are clearly a true-blue cat lover. Me too. And I agree with you wholeheartedly about every cat being a true individual. All my cats have had very unique, interesting personalities. And all so capable of showing great love and loyalty. Most of my kitties have also been extra loving and protective when I was sick, injured or just feeling down. I cannot imagine life without my beloved feline friends. ❤️
Same here. Thankfully my hubs loves cats too. We adopted our first cat together when we were in the army and he moved with us anywhere. Our tom was 2 years old when he chose us and he was with us until he was almost 19 years old. Kidney failure forced us to put him to sleep. That was the first time I saw my husband cry. Now, one of our foster fails was just diagnosed with advanced heart disease. She is only 2 years old 🙁 We love cats and I will take on bottle babies only again this year. Like you we can’t imagine life without them. Cats are the best 😀