An “unfriendly” shelter cat showed off her soft side as she cuddled up with a visitor and refused to let her go.
Valerie, 26, from Ohio, regularly visits her local shelter to spend time with the animals looking for forever homes, and a recent trip was more memorable than usual as she met a cat who took a particular shine to her.
“I noticed as I was shifting around that she would growl so I thought that she was in pain,” Valerie told Newsweek.
“I was concerned so I started lifting her up to inspect her which was when the claws came out. It turned out that she was growling whenever she was moved from my lap.”
In a post to Reddit’s r/cats on August 9, which boasts 32,000 upvotes, Valerie explained: “I work near an animal shelter so I always swing by to see and befriend the kitties during my lunch break and this sassy, unfriendly (to the other cats) kitty refused to let me leave.
“She would mrrr and growl whenever I tried to move her.”
The video shows the gorgeous smoky gray cat, Tinkerbell, lying across Valerie’s lap, and as she tries to lift her up, the claws come out and she grips tightly to her legs before lying her head back down.
Software engineer Valerie explained the rescue shelter, One of a Kind Pets, takes in animals that have been found in “dire situations,” and she often visits to pet and play with the cats, which staff encourage.
When she had visited previously, Tinkerbell had ended up “on my shoulder and then in my lap,” so this time she visited especially got her, to give her some “loving.”
“Like before, she hopped on my shoulder and then curled in my lap,” Valerie said, and when she realized Tinkerbell was refusing to let go, “I thought it was cute and sad so I recorded a video.”
Her video, posted via her account u/Unhappy_Test6017, had a huge response from Redditors, who, naturally, insisted she adopt the adorably clingy cat.
“She very clearly has chosen you,” one said, or as another put it: “She adopted you now.”
“Adopt her,” one pleaded, as another jokingly threatened: “OP had better not come back unless they can say they adopted this cat.”
But one user took a more measured approach, as they wrote: “I know a bunch of these comments hope you have adopted already, but if you cannot adopt for whatever reason, please know you are so appreciated. Thank you for spending your free time loving these cats and getting them prepped for someone who can take them home.”
And Valerie had a similar thought process, telling Newsweek the massive response made her somewhat nervous, especially the pressure to adopt.
“I think adoption should be a thought-out process since you’re bringing a new animal who may have had a rough start into a new environment and you have to be prepared for whatever conflicts may come up,” she said, noting that it’s “always sad to visit the rescue shelter and see that an animal has been returned.”
While Tinkerbell was nothing but loving toward Valerie herself, she appeared “territorial” of other cats “that came my way or I showed interest in,” and Valerie explained she already has three cats at home.
“I want to give her a chance to be adopted out to a family that doesn’t have any cats yet since she may thrive in a single-cat home better than a multi-cat home,” she said.
But, that said, she’s not ruling anything out.
“If I still see her there for a while during my visits, we may be adding a fourth cat to our family.”
Tinkerbell is one of millions of cats across the United States searching for a forever home. Each year, around 3.2 million cats enter shelters each year, and 2.1 million are adopted, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).