chester

While no kill animal shelters mean less animals are put to sleep, it does mean dogs can wait years to be adopted. Little Chester is a pit bull that was been overlooked at shelters for five years before he became a celebrity and found his forever family.

North Fork Animal Welfare League’s manager Gabby Stroup posted the picture (above) on the groups Facebook page and, within a couple of hours, it was shared 6,000 times! “It was crazy. I posted the original photo on the League’s Facebook page and by later that day there were over 6000 shares,” Stroup said. “Someone suggested I make him his own page and I did, at about 3:30 p.m., and that evening there were close to 2000 likes.” By Tuesday morning Chester’s Facebook had 8,688 likes.

Stroup received at least 300 emails, with more coming in every day and even phone calls from overseas. “There were more phone calls then I can count; 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 tearing up as they called.”

So which family did she choose for Chester?

“A woman named Dana called me inquiring about him; a friend of hers from Michigan had shared Chester’s picture on her page,” Stroup said. “Dana and I talked about Chester for a bit; she wanted to talk it over with her family.”

Dana Dor, her husband Adi, and their sons, Aidan and Brandon, drove from an hour away to meet Chester.  “They came and met him and it is just a perfect match,” Stroup said.

chester 2

“We saw him and we felt connected. It was meant to be, ” Adi Dor said; his wife said her husband had tears in his eyes the first time he met Chester.

Chester went home with the Dors on Saturday with a bag filled with his favourite toys.

Even though Chester was adopted almost immediately, the shelter plans to keep his Facebook page alive to help get other long-time waiters adopter. They’ll be featuring another dog this week.

(via Neatorama, SoutholdLOCAL)