Rescued Ural Pets Travel the World

August 15 marks International Homeless Animals Day. People often find their most loyal friends in the most unexpected places: in basements, on roadsides or near garbage bins. It seems animals come out to people themselves, sensing whom they can trust. In return for being saved, they give their owners endless devotion and love.

Readers of E1.RU shared touching stories about how their pets found a home.

Many animals were saved thanks to caring volunteers, who first nursed the foundlings back to health and then passed them into kind hands.

“Well, isn«t she a beauty! And most importantly — a perfect cat! Thanks to the volunteers who found her on the street and saved her. I just took her from the shelter,” writes Olga.

“Our cat Castiel was taken from a shelter with frostbitten ears and tail. He lived with us for 8 years, 9 months and 10 days,” recalls Maria.

Unfortunately, many readers found their pets in winter, in severe frosts. If not for the help of kind people, the animals would have faced a painful death.

“Our most beloved kitty, found frostbitten in late November,” shares Tatyana.

“Shonechka was picked up on the street when she was about a year old. She lived with me for 18 years. Unfortunately, she passed away last year,” writes Mashiko.

But the cat Semyon long ago forgot his difficult stray past. Now he resembles the plump cat from the cartoon “The Return of the Prodigal Parrot.” His owners fattened him up so much that all that«s left is to send him on vacation to Haiti.

“Cat Semyon Semyonovich. Picked up on the street at the age of two months, weighing 340 grams. Now he is four years old and weighs 8 kg (17.6 lb),” says Ekaterina.

The stories are the most varied: from miraculous returns to amazing coincidences.

“We found him on Avito, saved him from the street. We took him in, a couple of months later he ran away, and two years later he returned! We recognized him by the characteristic kink in his tail. For the second year now he wakes us up with a yell at 7 a.m., demanding breakfast,” says Kavo.

“My little ones Kridi and Plyusha are from ‘Meow Gallery.’ Kridi was found as a tiny baby in a basement, and Plyusha was saved from a cold and hungry winter on the shore of a reservoir. The sweetest little pies,” writes Anna.

Some readers still recall with pain the conditions in which they found their beloved pets.

“Found as a two-month-old kitten in a box at a dump in cold autumn! For 11 years we have loved and spoiled our queen Muna. An excellent cat with a wonderful character,” shares Anna.

“A shepherd-ish mongrel. He crawled out of the basement of our building as a two-month-old puppy just as we were walking home. He lived with us for almost 15 years! He is no longer with us now, but he was an amazing dog,” writes an E1.RU reader.

Some pets« lives turned out so well that they became real travelers and even received “foreign citizenship.”

“Our Berezovsky cat got a bit rounder, received a Georgian veterinary passport and now can«t wait for his titers so he can get visa-free entry to almost any country,” jokes his owner.

“Franny is from the Spetsavtobaza shelter. She chose us, not we her. Now she is living her best life: in seven years she has been to three countries, seen four seas, and traveled across Russia from Vladivostok to the Caucasus. And she doesn«t plan to stop!” says Elizaveta.

Take a look at photos of other pets. The E1.RU editorial team was absolutely delighted!

Earlier we published 15 hilarious photos of animals caught in very awkward moments. An expert explained what makes Siamese cats special.

Also read about how Ural volunteers found owners for a dog hit by a car, which a truck driver accidentally doomed to suffering.