12 Rescue Dogs and Shelter Cats Who Ended the Loneliness of a Widowed Night Janitor, a Grandmother, and More

• Every morning at our animal shelter in Asheville, we found Buster, a 4-year-old rescue dog, sitting outside his kennel. The latch had dropped back into place. No damage. So we installed a camera.
  At 2:07 a.m., Buster nosed the latch up and trotted down the hallway. He walked right past the exit and stopped at the cat room. He lay down by one cage until 5:30.
  Inside was Clementine, a 15-year-old shelter cat who cried every night. Her loneliness was so loud we’d called her a lost cause. On the footage, the moment Buster lay down, she went quiet.
  When a young couple came to meet Buster, we showed them the video. They took both. Clementine sleeps on his back now. That’s the kind of empathy you can’t train. It just walks down a hallway at 2 a.m.

• For 2 years, a senior rescue dog at our shelter howled every night at exactly 11 p.m. Neighbors complained. Our vet found nothing wrong. So I pulled up the overnight security footage, and I went completely quiet, because at 10:45 every night, our night janitor was sitting on the floor outside his kennel, playing the harmonica.
  I’ve directed this animal shelter for 12 years, and I want to be precise about what I saw, because I’ve told this story many times and it still surprises me. The dog was Gus, a 10-year-old beagle-basset mix with cloudy eyes and a habit of sleeping with his nose against the bars. Our vet had checked his hearing, his thyroid, his joints. Nothing.
  The footage was time-stamped 10:44 p.m. Walt, our night janitor, 68, sat down cross-legged in the hallway, took a battered Hohner harmonica out of his shirt pocket, and played “You Are My Sunshine.” Then “Moon River.”
  Gus pressed his nose against the bars, tail going like a metronome. At 10:59, Walt put the harmonica away and picked up his mop. At 11:00, Gus howled. He wasn’t in distress. He was asking for an encore.
  Walt took the night shift after his wife, Ellen, passed, because nights were when the house got too quiet. That loneliness was the reason he’d started sitting with the one dog nobody visited. He’d never mentioned it; he thought we’d see it as goofing off on the clock.
  I called him into my office the next morning. He looked terrified. I handed him an adoption form. He said he couldn’t afford a dog on his wage. We waived the fee, and the staff chipped in for a year of food. I’ve seen a lot of compassion in this building, but I’ve rarely seen empathy as quiet as a widower playing old songs to a dog no one else chose.
  Gus goes home with Walt every morning and comes back with him every night. At 10:45, they still play. The neighbors have stopped complaining. I think the happiness reaches them, too.

• Awh. So much love and happiness!! I’m so happy for both of you!! © Reddit
• Cow cat ♥️this made me tear up. Rescuing is one of the most beautiful acts of kindness there is and your story proves it. I love that you gave her a chance and waited on her terms. © Responsible_Twist800 / Reddit

• Our foster from the animal shelter, a shy hound mix named Taco, ignored every family who came to meet him. Twelve visits. Nothing. Then the UPS driver dropped off a package, and Taco lost his mind, spinning, whining, pressing his nose to the screen door. Same thing the next day.
  On day five, the driver, Marcus, asked if Taco was available. He adopted him on his day off. Taco picked his person. He just had to wait for the right delivery. I’ve never seen two happier faces.

My mama was like “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’VE HAD A DOG FOR 2 DAYS AND SHE HAS NO STUFFIES” and we immediately remedied that. We also got her a new bed for the blanket to go on—we wanted to keep things really simple and not overwhelm her so that blanket was the one given to her from the shelter, figured we’d keep it and not wash it for a bit so she can feel safe.

• I gotta tell you about my little cowcat Nila. Back in May I decided to adopt two kitties from the shelter to fulfill my lifelong dreams of having cats of my own.
  Browsing the shelter’s website I found her... a tiny cat with big terrified eyes, trying to make herself as small as possible, and seemingly very untrusting of this very big world. I saw her and I just wanted to take her home to my quiet and cosy flat and protect her and make her feel safe and show her that humans aren’t so bad.
  She was there with her three brothers, they’d all be found as kittens a few months earlier. On the website there was a picture of her as a kitten, too. I decided to take her and one of her brothers home.
  Her brother, Taavi, quickly turned into an absolute cuddle bug.❤️ Nila on the other hand didn’t take long to accept my presence but touching was still out of the question.
  Then over time she stopped running away whenever I walked past her. She started to come closer and even sleep in my room. Then she began rubbing herself against my legs.
  After two months she allowed me to carefully touch her as she was rubbing against my legs. And then, a few weeks ago, she was lying on my bed, grooming herself, and she seemed so calm and relaxed, and I reached out and gently began to pet her.
  She’s currently lying curled up on my bed with her back touching my leg. When I reach out to touch her she doesn’t flinch but closes her eyes and starts purring.
  Looking back it’s unbelievable how far she’s come. Part of me always hoped that she would become cuddly at some point but I didn’t want to be too hopeful. I would’ve been okay with her to remain distant as long as she felt safe and content.
  But she ended up trusting me and now she’s so cuddly and affectionate and she’s lost that terrified look in her eyes. I love this little kitty so much and I’m so happy she’s decided to trust me.
  By the way: I obviously love her brother just as much. ❤️ But he came out of his shell after just a few days and became super cuddly, so I never really had to worry about him.

He’s been at the shelter for the past three months and needed to be adopted by the 4th of August. He’s estimated to be 11 years old, and he’s missing some teeth.
He looked so devastated. Even the shelter worker was surprised that we picked him. She thought he wasn’t going to find a home.
When we went into the kennels, he was just lying down. When we approached, he only raised his head, looked at us for a second, and then laid it back down. It broke my heart. It looked like he had given up trying to find a home.
We were waiting for a worker to come talk to us, and when he saw her talking to us and pointing at him, he immediately got up. My guess is that he couldn’t believe he was actually being considered for adoption.
She took him out, we met him, and he was the sweetest boy ever. He was shining and full of energy.

• Congratulations compassionate person. Awaiting updates and new photos at home❤️. Adoption award 🏆! © wtburke / Reddit
• Thank you so much for adopting this beautiful boy. He will bring so much joy and happiness to you. © Mutt_Leader / Reddit

• My mother-in-law insisted on coming to the animal shelter to “help us choose” a cat. A black cat walked past all of us and climbed into her purse. She put him back three times. On the last try, she finally read his name card, stopped, and said, “Well, that settles it.”
  For context, this is a woman who has criticized every decision I’ve made since 2015, including the shelter we picked. Her good Coach bag was sitting open on the bench. The cat, 13 years old, black as a power outage, hopped in and settled down like he was waiting for a train. She took him out. He climbed back in. Three times.
  Then she put on her reading glasses and read his card out loud: “Senior cat. Owner passed away. Prefers quiet homes and people over 70.” My mother-in-law is 71. She’s lived alone in a very quiet house since my father-in-law left two years ago, and none of us had really talked about the loneliness. She looked at the cat in her purse for a long time.
  The volunteer mentioned, gently, that black cats are often the last ones adopted, and senior black cats almost never are. He’d been there 14 months. “Well,” my MIL said, “we’re both used to being overlooked.” Nobody in the room knew whether to laugh or cry. We went home without a cat. She went home with Ozzy and the most empathy I’ve ever seen her show anyone.
  She calls every Sunday now, mostly to tell us what Ozzy did that week. Of all the pets in our family, he’s the only one who chose her. It’s the happiest I’ve heard her in years. We still don’t have a cat.