upworthy

charity

Pets

Elderly cats are being saved from being euthanized with adorable cat retirement village

It's a cat paradise.

Representative Photo by Siobhan Kelleher|Wikimedia Commons

Elderly cats now safe thanks to adorable cat retirement village

An amazing retirement village is accepting guests in Shropshire, England—but instead of catering to elderly people, it's designed for elderly cats. Shropshire Cat Rescue has been rescuing elderly cats set to be euthanized and providing them with top notch elder care for over 21 years. Thanks to donations and sponsorship, the retirement village was built in 2009 to create comfortable homes within the rescue for senior and super senior kitties.

The owner and co-founder of the rescue, Marion Micklewright, was tired of seeing older cats get passed over for adoption and subsequently put to sleep simply because they were old. Som she decided to do something about it. Shropshire was created in 1991 and moved to Micklewright and her husband Richard's current home address in 1998. Today there are cats wandering the retirement village who are over 20 years old. One cat, lovingly named Cat, loves to hang out in the little "store" in the tiny cat town, while others lounge in cat condos.

Veterinarian Dr. Scott Miller, TV personality, resident vet on ITV's This Morning, and owner of an elderly cat himself, visited the feline retirement community in March 2024 to film for his new YouTube Channel, Rescue Vet. He was deeply impressed with how much the retirement community had to offer the cats that call it home and dubbed it the "cutest cat retirement village" according to Shropshire Star in 2024.

- YouTube youtu.be

Shropshire Cat Rescue is a marvel, but it's not the only retirement home out there for felines. A Florida couple opened a retirement home for elderly cats, too. Terry and Bruce Jenkins decided to open their home for elderly cats in their backyard, rescuing them from "hardship situations." Affectionately called Cats Cradle, the Jenkins' rescue doesn't adopt the old kitties out; they let them live out their years happy and cared for cozy in their backyard (that Bruce unofficially calls "cat Disneyland"). "I found a real purpose in caring for these animals who, in many ways, were a reflection of where I was in life, too," Terry told AARP in 2023.

Wonderfully, there are several retirement homes for cats in America, but Shropshire's retirement village operates like a small town. It comes complete with a storefront, six "homely chalets," and the "Moggies Mansion," a sort of common area for all the cats to congregate.

As of 2024, Shropshire Cat Rescue houses about 19 elderly cats, but have opened the village to "younger but just as in need" cats. They offer adoptions, are open to and eagerly welcome volunteers, and even host local events.

You can support Shropshire with donations to their PURR Project, a new center complete with it's own retirement village, nursery, pet hospital, education center, and even staff and volunteer accommodations.

Check it out:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

From Your Site Articles
elderly cats
PetsJoy
Celebrity

Breathtaking clip resurfaces of a 16-year-old 'waitress' Ariana Grande singing in a Chili's

"Yes. It's really her."

Ariana Grande / YouTube

A resurface click of a 16-year-old Ariana Grande

Before she was Glinda the Good Witch, before she was a Grammy-winning music sensation, Ariana Grande-Butera was just a girl from Florida with huge dreams. After a quick stint in a Broadway musical, by the age of 15, she was part of the Nickelodeon world, beloved for her role as Cat Valentine in Victorious and it's spin-off Sam & Cat.

After a lot of hard work debuting her first album, the rest is history. But every so often, a picture or video of a teenage Ariana makes the rounds, and the internet goes wild. This time, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have revived an old clip of a 16-year-old Ariana singing "Happy Birthday" to customers at a Chili's restaurant.

This isn't the first, nor probably the last, time the algorithms have popped this one up to the surface, especially since Ariana is on fire right now. But the fans and comments continue to discuss—with passion—how much they love her, even beyond her latest Wicked sensation.

What's interesting is that many fans still get the whole premise of it wrong. In a clip posted on TikTok, it's described as "Ariana singing happy birthday when she was a waitress at Chili's," then adding, "it's giving Meena vibes" (a reference to a shy performer in the animated film Sing, voiced by Tori Kelly).

@cloud_ari3

it's giving Meena #fyp #foryoupage #arianagrande #arianator #viral #cloud_ari3

There are over 300,000 likes and thousands of comments, with many questioning the original post. One writes, "She was working as a waitress while working on the set of Victorious?? Cuz she didn’t have red hair till the producers made her dye it." Others agree and wonder why she's there, clad in an apron and a tank top.

Some swear they knew her while she worked at the restaurant. "No one believed me that she worked at Chili’s. I remember her photos working there!"

And some are just impressed by both Grande AND Chili's. "Of COURSE Ari would work somewhere as magical as Chili's."

Finally, enough comments reveal that no, she was not, in fact, a working actress, raising money for a St. Jude charity event. "Y'all, she was already semi-famous when she did this. She worked one day as a guest server for a St. Jude Children's Hospital fundraiser."

In fact, that very fundraiser was a Chili's-based campaign called "Create-A-Pepper," whose goal was to raise $50 million for St. Jude Children's Hospital. On Popstar! Magazine's YouTube channel, Ariana shares, "If you donate a dollar or more, they can color in a pepper. The proceeds will go to St. Jude and help raise awareness for kids with cancer."

- YouTube, Popstar! Magazine, Ariana Grande www.youtube.com

In the video, Ariana also gives her heartfelt gratitude to another Chili's employee whom she says has been teaching her "how to be a waitress." The woman commends Ariana on her skills, though admits she doesn't quite know the menu. Ariana laughs and jokes that she's been making up things. "We have a sandwich with bananas and peanut butter and Nutella and fluff."

The Create-A-Pepper campaign is still very much active, and Chili's holds their donation drive every September.

From Your Site Articles
ariana grande
CelebrityPop Culture
Videos

Shaquille O'Neal quietly paid for a random guy's engagement ring while standing in line

"I'm just trying to make people smile... That's all."

NBA on TNT/Twitter

An unsuspecting guy at a shopping mall Zales got the surprise of his life back in 2021 while trying to pay off part of his engagement ring.

As the young man talked with the clerk at the jewelry store counter about how much he still owed for his ring and when he'd be able to pay it off, an extraordinarily large hand handed the clerk a credit card. Shaquille O'Neal, the 7' 1'' basketball legend known colloquially as "Shaq," overheard their conversation and decided to take care of the bill himself. No big announcement. No fanfare. He just handed over his credit card, shook the stunned customer's hand and patted him on the back, and that was that.

Someone caught the moment on video and shared it, which prompted Shaq's co-hosts on NBA on TNT to ask him about it the next day.

One of the first questions was, "You went to the mall, and went to Zales?!?" Not exactly where one would expect a person with a $400 million net worth to be hanging out on a Monday, but Shaq pointed out that he has a jewelry line at Zales. He went in to get some hoop earrings. Alrighty.

The young man at the checkout counter was so shy, Shaq said, and when he heard him talking about paying for his engagement ring, Shaq asked him how much it was and offered to pay for it.

At first, the guy refused, but Shaq insisted. And apparently, he does these random acts of generosity all the time.

He said he was recently in a furniture store (seriously, do multi-millionaires not shop online?) and saw a mom with an autistic daughter buying furniture. He just took care of their bill, just because.

"I'm into making people happy," he said. "I didn't mean for that to get out because I don't do it for that...I'm just trying to make people smile, that's all."

Shaq's generosity is well-documented, despite his preference to keep much of it under wraps. In a 2015 interview with Graham Bessinger, he explained how his father's charity—despite their family not having a lot of money—influenced him.

After giving the family's bag of hamburgers to a homeless veteran, his father got into the family car and told him, "If you ever make it big time, make sure you help those in need."

Shaq remembered those words and engages in charity in a range of ways, "because of what a man who made $30,000 a year taught me," he said. "And a woman who was a secretary who probably made $20,000 a year—they taught me that."

His giving comes "from the heart," he said. He's not looking for attention or accolades—he just wants to make people happy.

"I'm doing this because this is what I was taught," he said. "I'm doing it because to walk in there and see a family, put a smile on their face for a day, that's just awesome to me."

Shaq on helping others when no one is lookingwww.youtube.com

"That's my thing. I just want to make you smile," he said.

Shaq once asked a restaurant server how much of a tip she wanted, and when she quipped "$4,000," he gave it to her. When a 12-year-old was paralyzed by a stray bullet in a shooting, Shaq donated a whole house to his family. A fan who saw Shaq in a Best Buy offered condolences to the star for the untimely death of Shaq's friend and former teammate Kobe Bryant, as well as Shaq's sister Ayesha, who had recently passed away from cancer. He was treated to a new laptop—the best one in the store.

Many of us like to daydream about what we'd do if we had more money than we know what to do with. And many of us like to picture ourselves being generous with our wealth, helping out random folks who could use some help.

Charitable giving looks like a lot of different things, from funding organizations to distributing money through a foundation to handing over a bag of burgers to someone who's hungry. It's just delightful to see wealthy people who not only support official charitable organizations with money and time (Shaq serves as a national spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and is a member of the national Board of Directors for Communities in Schools in addition to raising and donating millions of dollars to various causes) but who also just help out random people everywhere they go.

Kudos to Shaq's parents for teaching him so well, and kudos to him for taking their lessons to heart.


This article originally appeared four years ago.

From Your Site Articles
kindness
Heroes
Family

Mom with adopted kids shares why low-income children deserve high-quality items from toy drives

"Children should never have to pay for the mistakes of their parents.”

via Canva/Photos

A child receives a gift at a toy drive.

A TikTok user named Annie made a thought-provoking post on October 28, 2024, asking people to consider holiday toy drives from the perspective of those receiving gifts. This resulted in some pushback from those who believe the recipients should be happy just to get a gift. However, Annie understands the perspective of those who receive gifts during holiday toy drives because she adopted three of her four children and once lived in a children’s home.

“I think there's an idea, a concept, that people who are low-income should just be grateful for whatever they receive. Whatever we give them, they should be thankful for it. Whatever gifts kids have to open they should just be thankful for it because we gave it to them,” she said. “If you have not been on the receiving end of some of that, you may not have a full understanding of what that looks like.”

She urged people to buy quality toys for children because low-cost gifts may bring them more heartache than joy. Annie says many kids are disappointed when they get the “Dollar Store Barbie” that breaks in 24 hours while being told to be grateful for the gift.

“That is about the giver feeling good and not about the receiver. If we're going to buy things for people for Christmas, if we are going to donate to toy drives, if we are going to adopt a family, if we're if we're going to take that step of empathy and compassion can we fully consider the people we are purchasing for and what matters to them?” she asked.

@mom.behind.the.scenes

Visit TikTok to discover videos!

Annie received angry comments from people who disagreed with her post, saying, “Nah beggars can’t be choosers boo” and “If you’re not teaching your children gratitude, you’re teaching them entitlement.”

However, many supported her belief that low-income kids shouldn’t be treated as second-class citizens. “I volunteered somewhere once that had a motto of quality = dignity, and I think of that a lot,” one commenter wrote. “Oh, I like that,” Annie responded.

Annie returned with a follow-up video a little less than a month later, sharing an important point about when she was a child asking for toy drive gifts. “None of us were asking strangers for those gifts,” she said about her time in a children’s home. We were asking Santa or a church or angels.”

@mom.behind.the.scenes

Replying to @🌼daayyysiiiiᏔ⃝ “These kids are not asking hard-working people for money. They’re asking miracle workers, imaginary beings that can produce anything. We are asking the children in need not be able to believe in Santa.” #angeltree #christmas #mutualaid #donate #community

Ultimately, Annie’s post was about protecting the innocence and dreams of children, which can be a real challenge for those who are low-income or in the foster care system. “Children that just ask for the bare minimum are children who no longer have the ability to dream,” she said. “These kids are not asking hard-working people for money. They're asking miracle workers, imaginary beings that can produce anything because that's what we teach them. We're asking the children in need to not believe in Santa. There's really no beauty in a child not asking for something.”

She ended the video by stating that children in need should still be able to dream, just as she did.

“I'm sobbing thinking back to my children being young and in need, back to that children's home I lived in and I wonder did those people that donated to me did they complain that these children in this children's home wanted BMX bikes and Cabbage Patch dolls and ventriloquist dummies?” Annie asked. “Did they call our parents names? Did they call us greedy and selfish? I really hope that wasn't the case and I don't think it was. But children should never have to pay for the mistakes of their parents.”

From Your Site Articles
toy drive
FamilyMotherhood
Trending Stories