An animal shelter in Arizona has shared heartbreaking images of a cat that was dumped in a cooler bag outside its facility before being rescued by a heroic dog.

Over the weekend, a cooler bag inside a plastic garbage sack was left on a donation bench at the Fearless Kitty Rescue center, a no-kill shelter in the town of Fountain Hills. Inside the cooler bag was a terrified black cat.

At around 5:45 a.m. on Saturday, a woman was walking her dog when it sniffed out the cat, according to the shelter. The dog, a husky named Koda, ran over to the bag to alert her owner.

The shelter wrote on Facebook: "This poor girl was sitting there likely for a few hours, but she had a savior."

A photo of the cat shared alongside the post showed it wide-eyed, with its head poking out of the red bag.

The shelter said: "Through a series of events and very caring people, this kitty was saved. The kitty, now known as 'Juliane' is doing fine and has already been seen and evaluated by our wonderful partners at El Dorado Animal Hospital. She did come to us with a pre-existing medical condition.

"In the Danish culture, the name Juliane means 'fearless'. And fearless she is!"

The shelter thanked Koda and her owner for helping to rescue Juliane and said it was working with law enforcement over the cat's dumping. "Who knows how long she had been abandoned and how much longer she could have survived if not found by Koda," it said.

Juliane was "decompressing" in the center's medial area, according to the post shared on Tuesday. Teryn Jones, a spokesperson for Fearless Kitty Rescue, told AZ Family that Juliane may need to have her tail amputated after vets discovered a mass.

"You just can't do this to animals. Well, you can't do this to anybody, let's be honest. Animals don't have a voice; they can't tell you what's going on," Jones said. She added this is the third time a cat has been abandoned at the shelter this year. Jones asked those thinking of abandoning a cat to follow the intake instructions on Fearless Kitty Rescue's website instead. "That's just the better way to do it," she said.

Juliane is due to be put up for adoption in the coming weeks, the shelter said. Those interested in adopting her are asked to email info@fearlesskittyrescue.org.

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