This is Chester, a six-year-old rescue dog. He may look like your average, run-of-the-mill Pit Bull mix, but he has a heartbreaking story.
This poor pooch had waited in vain for five long years for a family to take him home.
The North Fork Animal Welfare League on Long Island had been Chester’s home since being found as a stray.
It showed Chester posing in a melancholy fashion with a sign that said, “Why doesn’t anybody want me? I’ve been waiting 5 years. Everyone at the shelter tells me what a good boy I am. So why has no one adopted me? I promised to be good and love my new family. Please maybe you are my new family/ I sit and wait for you to come.”
Gabby Stroup, manager at NFAWL, said that the photo received 6,000 shares in the same day after the photo was posted on the League’s official Facebook Page. Aside from the social media fanfare, Stroup also received over 300 emails and more phone calls than she could count. The support and love for Chester came pouring in from all over the world.
“The phone just never stopped. People called from Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, Australia and more — people were tearing up as they called.”
A woman named Dana Dor and her family came to visit Chester, and he fell in love with them at once, smothering them with licks and kisses.
“They came and met him and it is just a perfect match,” Stroup said.
Adi, Dana’s husband, said, “We saw him and we felt connected. It was meant to be.”
Dana Dor said that Chester’s good-naturedness was proof of how well he was cared for by the folks at the animal shelter.
“They raised him. He’s been so loved.”
Since moving in with his new family, Chester has been frolicking in the yard, playing with his Bull Dog toy, and basically living every puppy’s dream.
The animal shelter intends to put Chester’s newfound fame to good use, and make his Facebook page an avenue for other long-term residents to find their own happy endings — just like Chester did.