'World's worst cat': Animal shelter's honest ad goes viral

The "world’s worst cat” is searching for her forever home.

Perdita, a 4-year-old cat, arrived at Mitchell County Animal Rescue in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, on Christmas Eve after her previous owner passed away. The shelter has since been trying to adopt her out and decided to be absolutely transparent in the process."Perdita, we thought she was sick, turns out she's just a jerk," reads a Jan. 22 post on the shelter's Facebook page.The ad continues to describe the black-and-white feline as "not for the faint of heart," listing some of her favorite pastimes: "staring into your soul until you feel as if you may never be cheerful again; the song Cat Scratch Fever, the movie Pet Cemetery (Church is her hero), jump scares (her specialty), lurking in dark corners."
Amber Lowery, 39, the shelter’s executive director, describes Perdita as a "spectacular cat."“She has a strong personality and is very spirited,” she told TODAY by phone. “We decided we had to go with something a little more out of the box to get her the home that she deserves."

Since the humorous ad went up, Perdita has been making the rounds on social media. "Awww... love her! Hysterical," wrote one commenter. "It's my soul creature," said another.

Lowery said the shelter has tried writing honest, tongue-in-cheek ads for other animals, including one dog she described as a “counter-surfing butter stealer.” But they'd never seen as much success as they have with Perdita. Indeed, more than 50 adoption applications for the cat have already piled up.

Many dogs have a condition nicknamed “Frito Feet,” in which their feet smell little bit like corn chips. As Matt Soniak wrote in a Big Question on this site, this has to do with the kind of bacteria found on a pup’s feet, and “could be due to yeast or Proteus bacteria. Both are known for their sweet, corn tortilla–like smell. Or it could be Pseudomonas bacteria, which smell a little fruitier—but pretty close to popcorn to most noses.”

And the viral pickup has helped the shelter overall. Lowery said they've already had several people stop by, after seeing the ad, who have subsequently met some of the other shelter animals . “It has definitely improved the donations," she said.

“I think this one was just the right kind of thing at the right kind of time," she added. Lowery credits the shelter staff's creativity for Perdita's ad, saying they wanted to “celebrate her and celebrate her quirks.”

Some of those quirks include her dislikes: “the color pink, kittens (yuk they are so chipper), dogs, children, the Dixie Chicks, Disney movies, Christmas and last but NOT least...HUGS.”

Lowery explained how the team stumbled upon one of those dislikes by playing music in the cat room. “We play the Dixie Chicks," she said. "We played it for her and she is not a happy camper. For the Christmas one, I thought it was very funny that since she was brought in at Christmas time, she would hate Christmas.”

As for whether the shelter will be writing more of these ads in the future, Lowery said, “We certainly can try.”

Whether Perdita ends up with one of the current applicants remains to be seen. “We are carefully screening the adoption applications to match personalities with Perdita and try to find a home with the least amount of stress where she can flourish," said Lowery.

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Once that match is made, the ad predicts Perdita will be “ready to be socially awkward with a socially awkward human who understands personal space.”