We’ve got wonderful news to share! Sweet—and, yes, adorable—Chandler has found his forever home. This lucky boy is on his way to a loving home in West Virginia. His new guardian recently lost her elderly cat so she knew it was “meant to be” when she saw Chandler’s blog.

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This is Chandler. He’s one of 109 cats who were removed from a vacant house belonging to a defunct “rescue” group in rural Virginia. He was lucky to escape with his life, but now he faces another obstacle: No one seems to want to take him to a real home. He’s not a kitten, he isn’t crazy cute, and he takes a little while to warm up to strangers (can you blame him?).

Chandler was plucked by first responders from a house that had no electricity or running water. The odor was so overpowering that respirators had to be worn. Trapped amid piles of their own waste, Chandler and the other cats had no food or water. Many of them were malnourished and suffering from upper respiratory infections and other diseases. At least two cats had already died by the time that help arrived. The tiny local shelter couldn’t handle all the cats, so PETA agreed to take some of them.

This case is part of a growing trend. “Rescues” and “no-kill” shelters now make up a quarter of the approximately 6,000 new hoarding cases reported in the U.S. each year! It’s estimated that at least 40,000 animals have been confiscated from failed rescues since 2005. Other hellholes go undetected.

Chandler got out. But now he’s sitting at our headquarters, having come a long way from the scared cat who used to hide under a blanket whenever anyone came near. We’re hoping someone will offer him a home to call his own.

Chandler is neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, and—this matters to some people—fluffy. He’s no longer a spring chicken, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot of love left to give. E-mail [email protected] if you would like to restore Chandler’s faith in humanity.