After an Indiana shelter's plea goes viral, cat food pours in from across the country

Chris Sims | IndyStar

In July, the Hendricks County Animal Shelter posted a request for donations of cat food. No one responded.

"Usually when we post something like that, people come in and we get some bags of food or whatever we ask for," said LaDonna Hughes, chief director of the Hendricks County Animal Control Shelter. "I realized nobody responded. It was kind of weird."



But their second plea, posted to Facebook Wednesday, got a huge response after it was shared by IndyStar and other local media. Animal lovers came out in full force, opening their wallets to make sure no cat or kitten would go without food.

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Phone calls and donations have swamped the shelter, as have deliveries from warm-hearted folks.

UPS and FedEx dropped off 177 boxes of food and supplies Friday morning alone, Hughes said. The entire lobby was filled with donations Thursday and half of the shelter's garage was full.

"It's just so overwhelming," Hughes said. "We were all in awe (Thursday). I just couldn't believe it."

According to responses on Facebook, donations have rolled in from California to New York to Florida. Jolene De Zeeuw of Spirit River, Alberta said she read the story in Canada and shipped a couple of bags of cat food through Amazon.

Kroger stopped by with donations and one boy, Anthony Goines, even dropped off $100 he received for his 13th birthday to help the cause. Volunteers are donating time just to help with the inundation of supplies.

Hughes said her phone started "blowing up" after the IndyStar story hit Facebook.

"We got very lucky," Hughes said.

Hughes said she expects donations to continue to pour in Saturday and maybe even through next week.

With the shelter quickly running out of space, Hughes will be reaching out to other shelters and rescues around the area to share the wealth.

"You don't always see the best in people these days," Hughes said. "It is so awesome to still see the good in people. This has been very emotional and the outpouring of support has been wonderful."

Chris Sims is a digital producer at IndyStar. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisFSims.