Recently, a woman named Gillian Rogers was riding the New York City subway when a man sitting nearby caught her attention and made her smile.
As it turned out, the man she noticed had company.
Laying in his lap was a towel-wrapped baby kitten.
“He was bottle-feeding her,” Gillian told The Dodo.
“You could see the caring. My heart felt like it was going to explode to see someone with that much caring. He was so in the moment.”
After looking at the man and his furry baby for a while, she knew she could not leave the subway without learning more – so she went to the man and asked him about his kitten.
“We had a chat,” Gillian said. “
He told me he’d found the kitten alone between two buildings.”
And instead of choosing to leave the baby to its own devices, the man decided to save it and care for it.
“The kitten was looking up at him as he fed her,” Gillian said.
“It was so heartwarming. I told him, ‘Thank you.'”
Eventually, Gillian had to get off before being able to ask for the person’s name.
But despite that, the experience simply made her day and lifted her spirits.
“It was truly a special moment. When I got off the train, I felt like I was walking on air,” she said.
“I felt joyful — like, it renewed my faith in humanity. There are still decent people out there.”
What Gillian saw had special significance for her; as the founder of Pet Rescue Squad Inc., she has made it her life’s mission to help animals in need.
And after she shared the post about the encounter on social media and it went viral, Gillian came to understand how one stranger’s act of compassion can impact the whole world.
“I had no idea the photo was going to resonate as it has. It makes me happy,” she said.
“I think we all need something to cheer us up.”
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