Animal shelters across the country are constantly going above and beyond to help the animals in their care, working around the clock to ensure all the animals have clean water, adequate food, plenty of outside time and necessary medical care. And for Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, located in Maine, sometimes going above and beyond to help animals means getting creative to make sure the animals in their care are comfortable.
Meet Dougie, the 15-year-old ginger cat who is currently calling the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland his home. Dougie loves to be held and when he isn’t getting attention, he meows so loud it can be “heard from galaxies far away,” the animal shelter wrote on Facebook. But of course, holding a cat in your arms all day isn’t really all that conducive to working (don’t tell the cat that). So Feline team member Robert Weimer came up with a solution to make everyone happy!
“We thought creatively and decided a baby Bjorn allowed Robert to both hold Dougie and do his job effectively,” the shelter posted on Facebook along with the adorable photo.
The cuteness is overwhelming! Thank you, Robert, for your kindness!
And we have happy news for Dougie! Dougie had been receiving medical treatment for inflammatory bowel disease and was just recently put up for adoption. After photos of Robert carrying Dougie went viral, Dougie found a new home! We are confident his new humans are holding him every chance they get.
Even though Dougie may have found his forever home, there are still dozens of cats waiting for a lap to call their own. 2.7 million dogs and cats are euthanized every day due to shelter overcrowding and limited funds, but we can help stop this. Saving one animal may not solve the pet homelessness problem for good, but for that one animal, their life is changed forever. If you’re thinking of adding a loyal best friend to your family, please remember to always adopt and never shop.
For more information on the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland and the amazing work they do on behalf of our furry friends, visit their website. And don’t forget to share Dougie’s heartwarming story with all the cat lovers you know!
Image source:Â Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland/Facebook
Wonderful people taking wonderful care of a beautiful cat and so many other wonderful animals. You are the BEST!
HAPPY CAT.
I\’m so happy Dougie found a home, bless his lil\’ heart! I pray that more people can go out and adopt/save more cats, dogs, bunnies, etc. from animal shelters, if at all possible! Our family had one of our cats go missing two weeks ago, and it\’s just broken our hearts. We\’ve searched & searched for him, registered his lost cat poster with multiple pet finding services, and searched multiple shelters again & again, all to no avail. He is microchipped and neutered, and had never roamed from home before, but suddenly, he just disappeared. We suspect someone in the neighborhood grabbed him, but have no way of knowing for sure.
But while searching the animal shelters for our cat, my heart just broke into a thousand pieces over & over again, seeing all the desperate animals needing homes, how the kitties would perk up and cry, the moment they realized somebody was looking in at them in their tiny, tiny enclosures. I wish with all my might that I would win a super-lotto, just so I could create a big no-kill animal rescue ranch, where they could be safe, and have a chance beyond a mere few days or weeks the government shelters give them.
For people who say "I can\’t afford another mouth to feed", I say that\’s false! We have found ourselves throwing out much more uneaten cat food now that one of our kitties is missing. Having three cats helped, as they all ate at staggered times, depending on when they were hungry, so between the trio, most of the cat food plates got eaten up, not wasted. Now, just having the two again, the two girls have different tastes, and don\’t eat at the same time. So much more cat food is being wasted now! We\’re opening just as many cat food cans and packets as we did with three cats, but we\’re seeing more of it going uneaten without our missing boy kitty. Please folks, try to squeeze in just one more pet into your homes if you can! You\’ll save a deserving, innocent life, and it really won\’t make much of a difference in the family budget.
You have two cats so you don\’t have to open the same amount of food and honestly, don\’t let your cats out… no they don\’t need to go out (people always say "they love it" but that isn\’t really a thing. That is your putting your feelings into an animal). Letting them go outside means you may loose them. Many rescue groups will not adopt to people who allow cats to roam. If your cats were indoor cats you\’d still have all 3.