In a heartbreaking post, an Indianapolis shelter shared the story of a family of cats found abandoned in a box outside the shelter—they also shared a compassionate message for whoever left them there.
The Facebook post shared on Tuesday by the shelter, @IndyHumane, shows the kitties all stuffed in a cardboard box, cuddling one another despite their situation.
The post said the discovery happened just as staff were preparing to close for the evening. A volunteer who was walking a dog spotted a car pulling into the parking lot before dropping the box near the dumpster and driving away. Inside was a surprising sight: three adult cats, two adolescents, and five tiny kittens—10 cats in total.
“They were clearly loved, well fed, social, and used to people. And now, understandably, a little confused about how they ended up here. If that volunteer hadn’t walked by when they did, we might not have found them until much later,” the caption reads.
“We know choices like this usually come from a place of desperation. Please hear us: we are not here to judge you. We are here to help you and the animals you love. If you’re struggling, come talk to our Pet Resource Center. We may not always be able to solve things immediately, but we promise our team will work with you and do everything we can as soon as we’re able.”
All the kitties are safe now. Three of them are with one mama and two with another, and the shelter confirmed that every cat will be spayed or neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated before adoption.
A spokesperson for the shelter told Newsweek that they are thankful for their amazing team of staff and volunteers who took this experience head on and did what was best for all of the animals involved.
“Our goal is to always have a conversation with patrons so that it doesn’t have to come to a difficult decision like what happened on Friday. We want to support pets and their people in any way we can. These cats are all doing extremely well, and have been getting loved on constantly by our staff and volunteers,” the spokesperson said.
The video quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 5,100 likes and 427 comments on the platform.
One user, Melissa Knepp, commented: “Sometimes we want to just yell about how awful humans are to abandon them, but you can see here, these babies were loved and cared for. I’m not saying it is the right to way to surrender them but they didn’t just leave them in a woods somewhere out in the wild. They made sure the box was big enough and that they were all together.
“They’re all so cute. I want them all is what my heart says. My head knows I can’t have them all but I hope they all find furever families.”
Aimee Bailey added: “I’m also amazed that they got 10 cats in one box and that they look so calm. When I try to put any of my cats into a cat carrier it’s like wrangling a tiny demon with razor sharp talons that screeches at me.”
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