KIRKLAND, Wash. - At MEOW Cat Rescue in Kirkland, you'll find lots of cute cats, all with their eyes on new homes and new humans.

So how does a human pick the right feline friend? Denise Schoo is a "meet your match assessor."

Today she's reevaluating Clyde. During five minutes of free time, Clyde can do whatever he wants.

"Every time he interacts with me the stopwatch starts, and it stops when he stops interacting," said Denise.

It's not a pass/fail test. She's just trying to find out who Clyde is.

The assessment continues with the call and approach, which is done first with a closed fist, then an open hand, and the stroking test, which Clyde likes quite a bit.

He isn't so red hot on the playtime test, but he does really well on the hug reaction and aces the sensitivity section.

Next, Clyde gets boiled down to math, and his character is plotted out on a "feline-ality" graph.

Clyde is a "secret admirer." A secret admirer is friendly but tentative. He may take some time to warm up. It's one of nine different cat types identified in the test.

Humans also get tested in this system. Denise does the Allen math.

"You would score an orange - sidekick," said Denise.

My best chance for a happy adoption is hooking up with an orange sidekick - solid, friendly, likes attention but can handle being alone too - like Bonnie, for instance.

"Bonnie is Clyde's sister. She is an orange sidekick," said Denise.

Louise and Munchee are also sidekicks.

KING

Four-year-old Clyde is a "secret admirer."

But I might want to pass on O'Reilly - he's rated as a "personal assistant" - or even our old friend Clyde. Remember, he graphed out as a secret admirer.

Not that the rules are hard and fast. MEOW won't force an adopter to take a specific cat type and they won't stand in the way of love at first sight. They just hope the matchmaking will mean more successful pairings.

"You can adopt whichever ones you want. It just gives you a basis to go on," said Denise.

It turns out I'm sort of middle of the road when it comes to cat preferences. Most people say they want the " sidekick" type, which is good, because most cats MEOW has tested, about 80 percent, turned out to be "sidekicks."

The "Meet Your Match" program was developed by the A.S.P.C.A. In a year-long test at five clinics, they found the number of adopted cats returned to shelters dropped significantly.