When it comes to sad animal stories, animal shelter workers could tell a ton. However, even animal shelter workers at the Douglas County Animal Care & Services weren’t prepared for what they saw one morning. An abandoned box was sitting on the front porch and when they opened it they were shocked by what they found inside.
20. Abandoned
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Animal rescue workers at the Douglas County Animal Care & Services in Gardnerville, Nevada, were heading into work one morning when they saw something unexpected. There on the front porch was an abandoned box.
19. Unclear
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No one was sure where the box had come from. In fact, no one even knew what was inside of the box. However, what they could piece together was the fact that the animal had been abandoned overnight.
18. Surveillance Footage
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Shelter workers decided to investigate further by looking into their security footage. In the video, an unidentified man was seen placing the box on the front steps. He then turned his back on the box and walked away.
17. Authorities
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Although the man in the video was unidentified, the shelter quickly alerted the authorities to the situation. Nevada’s Douglas County Sheriff’s Office wrote up a Facebook post asking for people’s help in identifying the man.
16. Common Occurrence
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Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens more often than not. “We saw a carrier outside our door. Being an animal shelter, that usually means one thing: somebody has dumped their animal on the front porch,” Liz Begovich, the shelter’s supervisor, told The Dodo. “So we brought the carrier in and looked inside.”
15. Opening The Box
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When shelter workers finally opened up the box they couldn’t believe what they saw inside. At first they thought it was a big dog, however, that wasn’t the case at all. “All we saw was a matted mess,” Begovich said.
14. A Cat
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“We couldn’t turn him around because of the way he was shoved in the carrier,” she said. “So we took the top off and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s a cat!’ I’ve never seen a cat in that sort of condition.”
13. Overgrown Coat
The poor cat was trapped under all of that matted hair. He could barely move and it was also pretty obvious that he had been living like that for a while. It was a horrific sight for the shelter workers.
12. No Movement
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“He couldn’t even take a step,” Begovich said. “I’m guessing that wherever he was, he had his food and water right in front of him. There was just no way for him to move.”
11. Neglectful
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Although the cat was abandoned by the man in the video, Begovich has been wary of blaming the man for neglecting the cat. Begovich is unsure of whether or not the man in the video is responsible for the cat’s condition.
10. Backstory
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“Normally, when someone leaves an animal after hours, there’s usually more to the story. It’s typically not a Good Samaritan who found an animal on the side of the road,” Begovich said. “We would really like to know the backstory. There could be other animals in this house, wherever this cat came from, who are in the same condition.”
9. Recovery Process
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However, now that the cat was in good hands it was time to start the recovery process. No cat should have to be buried under that much fur. So the first thing the shelter workers did was take the cat to a vet for a proper shaving.
8. Shaved
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“We immediately took him to the vet where they sedated him,” Begovich said. “They shaved about 4.5 pounds of hair off of him. It filled a full-size kitchen trash bag.” Finally, the poor cat was free from his prison of hair!
7. Naming Him
Once the cat was free of his overgrown cat, the shelter workers decided to give the cat a name. They decided to name the cat Bob Marley and since they removed his fur, they soon realized that there was another problem that Bob faced. He happened to be quite overweight.
6. Overweight
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Unfortunately, after removing Bob’s hair, the workers realized that he was quite overweight. He weighed 22.6 pounds and workers knew that in order for him to be at his best he would need to adopt a new diet.
5. Too Heavy
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“Once the hair was off, he was walking around,” Begovich said. “I saw him looking up at the counter thinking, ‘I can jump up there.’ I thought, ‘No you can’t.’” In order to help Bob reach his full potential shelter employees got to work on helping him lose weight.
4. New Diet
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Bob was placed on a new diet to help him shed the extra pounds that he was carrying. Luckily, he easily shed the weight and soon the shelter put him up for adoption. It wasn’t long before people showed their interest in Bob.
3. Sweet Cat
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Bob has proven to be a very sweet cat and shelter workers believe that he only deserves the best home. “He’s got many years ahead of him,” Begovich said. Finally, at 10-years-old, Bob got his new forever home.
2. Forever Home
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Bob was quickly adopted by a wonderful family that couldn’t wait to bring him home. He is finally living a better life and will not have to worry about being neglected so severely ever again.
1. Never Found
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Although the man who dropped off Bob was never found, Bob still managed to do well in his new situation. Bob is now a healthy and happy cat that is living comfortably in his new forever home.