We’re always wondering what it might take to find a forever home for an abandoned dog or cat. In this case it was a young woman’s love for cats and her insatiable interest in that new video sharing social networking service called TIKTOK.
Erin Crisp started as a volunteer at another shelter but needed to earn a living so she joined the staff of Abandoned Pet Rescue in the summer of 2020. She has an amazing love for animals and wanted to do something that would draw attention to the shelter and the animals up for adoption. She was fascinated by animal videos she could watch on TIK TOK and decided to create one to share.
Enter Chit Chat… a beautiful senior cat that has been at APR for the last 11 years. Chit Chat is a very happy cat and has always thrived at the shelter. But she suffers from chronic inflammation of the gums which requires minor but frequent medical treatment. (Medical issues always make adoption more difficult.)
One day Erin was watching Chit Chat playing and decided to record her play session. She took the video, edited it, and posted it on TIKTOK.
To everyone’s surprise Chit Chat was becoming an international super star. Within just weeks more than one million people from Florida to Maine to Germany and beyond had viewed the Chit Chat video. “Likes” were coming in by the hundreds of thousands and adoption applications were arriving from all over the world. But APR has a strict adoption policy… especially when it comes to animals with medical needs.
Next Ashley and Trey enter the picture. They live in Central Florida, they have two rescue cats… one a senior, the other with diabetes. They care for both animals with little effort and got rave reviews from the APR team when they drove down to meet Chit Chat.
There was a lot of discussion about the long-distance adoption. Then, Erin, Chit Chat, Ashley, and Trey spent time together and it was decided Chit Chat would finally have her forever home.
We’re told that Chit Chat is “living the life” now with Trey and Ashley and is as happy as a kitty can be. Erin continues to spread the word about APR. When we asked her about her work she said, “There’s always someone out there for every animal but some time you just have to work a little harder. Never give up.”
Chit Chat’s views are now at 1.3 million and climbing on TIKTOK but for one cat the count of two parents and one permanent home is all that matters.
