Act of kindness: Puppies left at Fayetteville shelter with note

An animal shelter in Fayetteville is asking for help after a person left puppies at their door with an emotional note.

It read, "I'm sorry for leaving them like this but I myself am homeless and cannot afford to care for them. My heart shatters for them and their mother."

The man explained that he found the puppies after the mother was hit by a car after a recent storm.

“Please do not think poorly of me but it felt wrong leaving them alone in the cold waiting on a mother that would not be coming home,” he wrote in the note to the Fayetteville Animal Protection Society. It was signed, “Sincerely, nameless man.”

On Facebook, the Fayetteville Animal Protection Society posted a response to the man, a picture of the puppies and the handwritten note.

“To this compassionate individual, wherever you are, we want you to know that your act of kindness has not gone unnoticed,” the shelter wrote. “Your empathy in the face of adversity gives us hope and inspiration."

“We promise to honor your selfless gesture by providing these puppies with the love and care they deserve.”

The shelter also invited the man to stop by the shelter to visit the puppies and to receive “a proper thank you.”

"So many people in the community have been supportive, and we truly hope the gentleman steps forward so we can get him some help as well," a shelter spokesperson wrote in a message to WRAL News.

Fayetteville Animal Protection Society manager Chelsey Schultz said she ws the one who found the puppies with the letter at the shelter.

"It gets my heart every time," Schultz said of the letter.

Schultz said there were storms the night before she found the puppies and the letter.

"I can just envision him running around, trying to find the puppies," she said.

The puppies are still too young to adopt. Schultz said it would be about two weeks until the puppies are ready for adoption.

However, the shelter is asking for donations to help care for them.

"He just said basically he just wanted these puppies to have the life that he and their mom never got," Schultz said of the anonymous man.

The Fayetteville Animal Protection Society is a no-kill shelter. It is currently taking care of more than 60 cats and dogs. The shelter operates on donations of supplies, money and volunteers.