'Lonely' Cat Who Fostered Dozens of Others Finally Gets Forever Friend

Fostering rescue animals is an extremely rewarding and important way to get animals out of overcrowded shelters and into forever homes. It removes them from small enclosures and helps to socialize them so they're ready to be adopted, but it can be hard for the fosterers' permanent pets, which see many animals come and go.

One such animal is Dunder the cat, a rescue animal himself. Dunder's owner, Sara Bonner, 31, of Washington, D.C., began fostering cats, and Dunder has befriended 22 of them, only to say goodbye when they find a home.

Approximately 3.2 million cats enter overcrowded shelters every year. Of those, 530,000 are euthanized, often because of a lack of space, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Originally an adamantly anti-cat person, Bonner started a new job in 2016 and found herself surrounded by cat people.

"Of the 12 people on my team, I was the only person who didn't own a cat," she told Newsweek. "Day after day, I was inundated with adorable photos of cats, so soon enough the idea of adopting a cat started to grow on me."

She went on: "When one of my co-workers planned a weeklong vacation, they asked if I could take in their kitten while they traveled. Once she arrived at my home, I was instantly smitten. I'll never forget shedding a tear on the day they came to pick her up. I applied to adopt Dunder from City Dogs and City Kitties Rescue five minutes after they left. I'm not totally sure how old he is, but my guess is 6 or 7."

In a video posted to Bonner's Instagram account, @dunderandfriends, Dunder can be seen cozying up an array of foster cats.

"I think that Dunder is so great with fosters because he has this innate ability to sense what the other cat needs," Bonner said. "I've had fosters that hid for weeks before joining the apartment, whereas I've had others that instantly feel at home and are ready to play.

She continued: "Dunder does a good job of feeling out which cats need more time to warm up to him. We've had 22 fosters, and he's befriended every single one. I also had my own little cat-sitting business for a while too, and we must have taken in 50-plus cats over the years. You'd be surprised—most cats do well with a buddy if you give them a chance."

After five years living alone together, Dunder and Bonner moved in with Bonner's boyfriend six months ago.

"It was a really exciting time, and we decided to take a break from fostering so we could settle into our new routine," she said. "It was a well-needed pause. However, after a while it was clear that Dunder was lonely and needed a friend. I had always imagined adopting a second cat. However, I wanted to be a little further along in life and have a partner that could help me care for them, so once we were settled the moment had finally arrived."

After many sleepless nights while trying to find the perfect companion for Dunder, Bonner eventually found Mose, who was at the same shelter Dunder was in.

"I went back to the City Kitties website and filtered by which cats had been there the longest. Mose had been stuck in foster care for eight-plus months, which is a very long time," she said.

"All of my fosters had gotten adopted within a month or two. It turns out that Mose kept getting passed over because of how shy she was. We don't know exactly what happened to her, but it's clear that she had some sort of traumatic experience with humans in her past before coming to City Kitties. She was incredibly skittish, and it took months before she allowed her foster mom to pet her," Bonner said.

"But, wouldn't you know it, Mose had a foster brother in her home who was super outgoing. Having a confident kitty friend around helped to put her at ease, and that's exactly what we were looking for."

Bonner put a lot of work into making Mose feel comfortable, including working from the bathroom, where Mose decided to hide.

But it was Dunder who really made Mose feel at home. After moving into the loft where Mose was, Dunder stayed up there 24/7.

"He'd stay a few feet away, nap when she napped and [tried] to sneak in a sniff whenever she'd let him," she said. "She was never alone up there. Dunder was determined to help her feel safe. Every day, I moved her food and a water bowl down a step so she'd have to come further into the living space.

"One night, after two weeks of hiding in the loft, Mose finally decided to join us in the living room. We were shocked! My boyfriend and I had to stop ourselves from jumping up and down so we wouldn't scare her off, we were so excited."

And now?

"They are thick as thieves!" Bonner said. "I left them alone overnight as we traveled for a wedding, and when we returned 24 hours later, it was clear they had had some sort of secret cat meeting and decided to be best friends forever. It reminds me of the scene from Step Brothers when Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly said to each other, 'Did we just become best friends?'"

One Instagram user wrote: "I'm considering fostering for this reason!"

Another commented, "Omg I want to cry happy tears! Yay for Dunder and Mose!"

Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.