When a Good Samaritan in Akron, Ohio, noticed a grumpy-looking tabby hanging around her house, she assumed he wanted nothing to do with her. Not only did he wear a permanent scowl, but he seemed to have been living outside for a long time.
But as the woman got to know the cat, she realized that was far from the truth.
The cat may have looked angry on the outside — but all he wanted was to be loved. So she contacted Riggi Rescue to see if they could help the skinny, flea-bitten stray.
“When he first came in, we had gotten some pictures of him, and he just looked so grumpy. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, is he nice?’ and she was like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s super friendly,’” Melanie Anielski, the rescue’s lead foster mom, told The Dodo. “That’s just his face. It doesn’t really matter if he’s happy or content — he’s never really angry — he’s just always looking at you with that little scowl and you can’t help but giggle when you look at him.”
The rescue dubbed the cat Giggles and set about looking for his owner. Despite his furrowed brow, Giggles seemed grateful to be in a home again and made sure to show his appreciation to his foster parents.
“His demeanor is very chill,” Anielski said. “He’s super laid-back, he loves to plop down next to you wherever you’re sitting, wants you to scratch his belly. So he’s really, really loving.”
When no one stepped forward to claim Giggles, the rescue posted his photo on their Facebook page to see if anyone recognized him. They were shocked when pictures of the frowning cat went viral in a matter of days and adoption requests flooded in from all over the world.
“We were really surprised because we’re just a little group of people who love cats, and now one of our cats is Insta-famous,” Anielski said. “It was really exciting.”
After a month with his foster family, the rescue knew it was time to find the loving cat a permanent home. Luckily, Giggles made it pretty easy to pick his new parents.
“When they first met it was an instant connection, like they had known each other forever,” Anielski said. “It was the sweetest thing to watch. He just walked right up to his new mom and started rubbing up on her legs and rolled over and he was just immediately in love with her.”
The grumpy-looking cat is now the spokeskitty for Riggi Rescue, helping to get more people excited about rescuing and adopting cats.
When he’s not working, he cuddles with his loving family and two cat brothers, proving that looks can be deceiving.
“He really just wants human companionship and I think he’s really happy that he has that now,” Anielski said.