animals

Would You Adopt This Jerk?

Perdita, a jerk. Photo: Mitchell County Animal Rescue/ Facebook

How many jerks do you have in your life right now? Ideally, the answer is zero, but there are probably a few floating around, if you’re honest with yourself. A rude co-worker, maybe. An upstairs neighbor who stomps around loudly late at night. A friend from college who you know is kind of a dick, but whom you hang out with anyway because … well, you’re not even really sure why anymore. Habit, I guess. Whatever your number may be, how would you feel about adding one more? Specifically, that jerk pictured up there. Her name is Perdita, and she’s been called the “world’s worst cat.”

This week, the Mitchell County Animal Rescue in North Carolina posted about Perdita on its Facebook page, saying it would waive the adoption fee for anyone willing to take her in because she is “not for the faint of heart.”

According to the post, Perdita’s likes include: “staring into your soul until you feel as if you may never be cheerful,” “jump scares (her specialty),” and “lurking in dark corners.” Her dislikes include: kittens, dogs, children, and “HUGS.”

However, she’s “single and ready to be socially awkward with a socially awkward human who understands personal space.”

Amber Lowery, the shelter’s director, told McClatchy that staff has been worried for a while about Perdita, who arrived at the shelter on Christmas Eve. Whenever people would try to rub the 4-year-old cat, she would “slap” them. Staff thought maybe Perdita was in pain, but when they took her into the vet, his diagnosis was even more dire.

“He said: ‘No, this cat is just a jerk.’”

“I’m looking at her right now, and she’s rolling around in her little bed, looking all sweet and cute, but the minute you try to rub her, she slaps you,” Lowery said.

The shelter’s post about Perdita was a hit on Facebook, garnering over 1,000 likes, and hundreds of comments from people saying how much they love Perdita and how they, too, are jerks. It’s unclear how many people have actually applied to adopt Perdita so far, but maybe you could give it a try. If you do end up adopting her, you could try to get in her good graces by offering her a little treat and scratching under her chin. And if you don’t end up adopting her, you could try that with your rude co-worker instead.

Would You Adopt This Jerk?