There’s a reason there have been so many campaigns to keep people from leaving dogs in hot cars: Heat can seriously injure or kill animals. It’s not fun to talk about, but it’s the truth — and now that summer has officially hit the United States, it’s more important than ever to focus on making sure we and our pets are staying cool and safe in hot weather.
However, that was hard for one Washington, D.C. area animal shelter to accomplish when they were left with a broken air conditioner. But as soon as they let the community know what was going on, people immediately stepped up to help these animals.
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According to the Washington Post, it all started on Monday, June 30, when the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center shared a Facebook post asking for help.
About 70 animals they were housing now needed foster homes until the shelter could get their AC up and running again, because with temperatures as high as 100 degrees in the area, it wasn’t safe for them to stay in the building until it could be fixed.
Soon enough, hundreds of people began contacting the shelter, and there was a line out the door of people who were available to foster the animals to keep them cool while they waited for the AC to get fixed.
“On Monday alone, over 40 dogs left the building, along with the majority of our cats and small animals,” the shelter wrote in an Instagram post. “Dozens more were picked up the following day. ‘Incredible’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. It was overwhelming. It was humbling. It was beautiful.”
The story has an even happier ending, too. The following day, when the air conditioning was fixed and the shelter let people know it was safe to start bringing their fosters back, some families decided to keep their new friends forever.
Sometimes, it’s easy to lose faith in humanity, but it’s stories like these that really remind us just how much good we still have in the world.
