Cristiano Ronaldo is a wealthy man and luckily for a struggling dog kennel in Portugal he is willing to share. According to Portugal’s Correrio de Mahna, after hearing that 80 dogs were in need, the 32-year-old star sent a signed jersey to the kennel to help raise money.
“I want to thank Ronaldo from the bottom of my heart,” kennel operator Liliana Santos told the newspaper. “It was a simple but very important gesture.”
Cantinho da Lili kennel plans to auction off the jersey which they believe will make enough money to provide veterinary treatment, improved shelters and of course food for the puppies as they wait waiting for my forever home.
The strange thing is that Ronaldo sent this shirt in November but it only arrived this week due to delivery problems.
“The important thing is that it was here,” said shelter volunteer Gloria Carvalho, who began contacting the soccer superstar’s family. “We still don’t believe it.”
Ronaldo’s sympathy for shelter dogs is not surprising. When the striker moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009, he appeared happy to have a dog again and to get a raise.
“I always liked having a dog, but that was impossible in Manchester,” Ronaldo said in a video uploaded to YouTube in 2011. “It was too cold and my house was not suitable.”
Ronaldo, who has at least two dogs and a cat in Madrid, added: “They brighten the house and bring me a lot of joy.”
Ronaldo, who regularly contributes to charity activities, is a global ambassador for Save the Children. In December, he made a “generous donation” to the organization to go towards providing food, clothing and medical care to families in Syria.
The star has also collaborated with children’s charities UNICEF and World Vision in the past.
In 2015, he was named the world’s most charitable athlete by the nonprofit DoSomething.org, which highlighted some of his donations, including a gift of more than $80,000 to the foundation founded by DoSomething.org. established to support cancer treatment for a 10-month-old baby.
“My father always taught me that when you help others, God will give you double,” Ronaldo said in 2013 (via Telegraph). “And that’s what actually happened to me. When I help people in need, God helps me more.”
