Chester the dog was found as a stray and taken into an animal shelter where he waited five years for a family to adopt him.
The manager of the shelter uploaded this photo of him to their Facebook page, where it quickly went viral.
The manager of the North Awl Animal Welfare League, Gabby Stroup, told the Southold Local that the response was "crazy".
"I posted the original photo on the League's Facebook page and by later that day there were over 6000 shares," Stroup said. "Someone suggested I make him his own page and I did, at about 3:30 p.m., and that evening there were close to 2000 likes." By Saturday afternoon there were well over 4,000 likes.
As well as enquiries on social media, Stroup said she received over 300 emails and more phone calls than she could count.
"The phone just never stopped. People called from Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, Australia and more — people tearing up as they called."
A woman named Dana Dor and her family came to visit Chester.
Dana's husband, Adi, said: “We saw him and we felt connected. It was meant to be."
Chester has moved into his new home with his forever family and is settling in nicely.
The charity plans to use Chester's new Facebook page to share pictures of other long term residents of their shelter.