Dog Saves Abandoned Cat Stuffed In Plastic Bag Outside Animal Shelter

An abandoned cat that was zipped up in a cooler stuffed inside a plastic bag was rescued right outside of a Maricopa County, Arizona shelter Saturday by a dog and her owner who were just passing by.

Koda, a husky, was walking with her unnamed owner along Avenue of the Fountains in Fountain Hills that morning when she approached a zipped-up cooler that had been placed on the donation bench of the Fearless Kitty Rescue cat shelter, ABC 15 reported. Upon inspection, Koda's owner found a young female cat in the bag.

"Cat was saved by a dog, you don't hear that every day," the no-kill shelter's spokesperson, Teryn Jones, was quoted as saying by AZFamily.com. Jones said there was no way to know how long the cat had been abandoned in that condition.

According to Jones, the cat — who had been named Juliane — is now being cared for by the nonprofit organization.

"We got [the name] from the Danish culture; it means fearless and, of course, we are Fearless Kitty Rescue. We think she is the true definition of fearless," the spokesperson explained.

Juliane is doing well and is recovering at the shelter's medical area after being evaluated by staff at El Dorado Animal Hospital, as per ABC 15. Veterinarians, however, discovered a mass on Juliane's tail that could lead to amputation.

The rescued feline will be ready for adoption in the next few weeks, Fearless Kitty Rescue said in a statement released Tuesday.

Jones is advising people who want to leave behind their cats to follow the shelter's intake process in light of the incident.

"You can't just do this to animals... Animals don't have a voice; they can't tell you what's going on," Jones was quoted as saying by the AZFamily.com.

"We have an intake process; it's on our website. And that's just the better way to do it," Jones said.

The shelter has contacted the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office over the incident. They are hoping to view neighboring security systems to see if cameras caught anything.