An adoption center and cat sanctuary in Los Angeles has gone viral after launching its "nice and naughty" cat of the week series.
Toni Barrett, development manager for Heaven on Earth Perry's Place, said she and her staff were inspired by a popular cat influencer on TikTok who goes by the name "Pot Roast's Mom," who would label her own cats as "good or bad" cat of the week.
Barrett thought the idea was a funny idea and decided to apply it to her work at the sanctuary, she told Fox News Digital.
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"We should do that at Perry's Place because we have so many cats, and we always have someone doing something naughty or volunteers telling us how much they loved [how] this cat was well-behaved this week," Barrett said.
The series was launched on the shelter's Instagram page in March of 2022, but did not take off until the fall, according to Barrett.
"It was slow [at first], people were enjoying it, and then all of a sudden we had this one [post] that kind of went viral," Barrett commented.
Two felines named Elijah and Popsicle were awarded nice and naughty cat of the week, respectively.
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"Elijah has opened up and shown the staff how much he loves belly rubs," the post read in reference to the "nice cat" of the week.
"Popsicle stole treats from Daniel, his BLIND roommate,"the post also said, regarding its "naughty cat".
Barrett quickly noticed a massive increase in Instagram followers as well as likes. Since then, thousands of users have been reacting to the posts.
"[We got] people there just for the ‘nice and naughty’ cat," Barrett stated.
"We have people that, God forbid we forget a Saturday, they are like, 'where’s my ‘nice and naughty' cat post?'"
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Heaven on Earth's Perry's Place is the current residence for roughly 111 cats and 91 foster cats.
Volunteers and staff members are the ones to nominate a cat to be selected for the "nice and naughty" cat of the week award.
"If a volunteer or staffer notices a kitty being extra good or naughty, they can put their recommendation in the [suggestion] box," Barrett shared.
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Barrett will select the designated kittens on the days leading up to Saturday, but sometimes things don't go according to plan.
"Our adoption team has done such a great job that sometimes I'll have a cat ready on Tuesday, and then on Friday that cat will be adopted, so then I have to scramble and find a new cat," she commented.
Ultimately, that problem is "100% worth it," Barrett said.
There are some weeks when finding a "naughty" cat is very difficult because "everyone has been so good," Barrett sated.
The team can always rely on the sanctuary's "resident naughty cat," Kallo, to be up to no good.
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"We could honestly put him as ‘naughty cat' every week with a new thing he does," Barrett joked.
Some hopeful adopters have reached out to Perry's Place through social media showing interest in the cats featured in the series.
"It has definitely [given] some of these cats more attention than they normally would have," Barrett explained.
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This year, Perry's Place will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary.
The shelter's opening was "a big turning point," according to Barrett.
"It enabled us to save so many more cats throughout the years and adopt them into loving homes," she explained.
